Bottled Up
by Qille
Summary: Takes place after Deadly Secrets. How does Nico deal with his claustrophobia? And what happened to those marmosets? All questions will be answered. Rating subject to change. THIS IS A TWO-SHOT!
1. Recovery

_A/N: Here it is! Nico's story! Takes place after the events in Deadly Secrets. Read that first! And remember: this is a two-shot. There will be another chapter!_

**Bottled Up**

The very first thing Nico said when he woke up was: "Are they gone?"

"Yep, they're all gone," said Pedro. "No harm done?"

"Nope." Nico pushed himself into a sitting position, wincing and hoping the cut on his chest wouldn't reopen. Today had been the day he had gotten the stitches taken out, and tomorrow, he would get to go home. He had been waiting for the stitches to come out, because they kinda freaked him out a little. Going home would be even better.

"Have they found those stupid monkeys yet?" asked Nico.

"Not yet," said Pedro. "But I guess they figure they'll turn up eventually."

"Yeah," said Nico, yawning. His vision started to blur and he got increasingly tired as some of the post-surgery medicines started to kick in. Pedro saw this and smiled.

"Don't worry Nico, I'll take care of everything," said Pedro confidently.

Nico muttered something too quiet to hear before he slipped back into a sleeping position and his tiny body relaxed, sleep overtaking him.

Pedro smiled. He picked up Nico's bottle cap, which had fallen on the floor, and set it next to him. With that, Pedro flew into the air and out of the bird sanctuary. He headed straight for the grove of trees around the pond, where he and all his friends lived.

Pedro flew around over the pond, looking for Blu or Rafael. Both of them were helping in the search for the rogue marmosets.

After flying around for a minute, Pedro spotted Blu (he was pretty hard to miss) and Rafael. They were both sitting in the tree that, a few weeks ago, had been the scene of an attempted murder. Right now, Blu had his head in the hollow of the tree, probably looking for something. Rafael was standing behind him.

"Hey, what's goin' on?" Pedro asked as he landed on the branch the other two were on.

"Hey, Pedro," said Rafael. "How's Nico?"

"He gets to come home tomorrow!" exclaimed Pedro. "So... what's goin' on here?"

"Blu and I were looking for-"

"Hey I found something!" came a voice from inside the tree. Blu sat up, not realizing he still had his head inside the tree, and whacked his head. "YOW!"

"What'd ya find?" asked Pedro.

Rubbing the back of his head with one wing, Blu reached down into the tree and grabbed something. He sat back, careful not to hit his head again, and pulled out what he found. Pedro gasped. Blu had found the two spoons and the knife. The knife still had a bit of Nico's dried blood on it.

"So... what does this mean?" asked Blu.

"It means them stupid monkeys are in for a world of hurt," growled Pedro.

**xxx**

Meanwhile in the Marmoset Camp

"YOU THREE ARE TOTAL IDIOTS!" shouted Mauro. "Well, I should expect you two to be stupid, but Maurice?" Mauro looked at the marmoset in the middle, the only one of the three looking Mauro in the eye. The only one with a scar on his nose. And Mauro's only brother.

"You idiots knew it was gonna storm, you knew if you got caught you would die, but you went anyways!" shouted Mauro, pacing around, continuing his psychotic rant. "I told you to wait! I told you you would have to be patient until the right time, and _then_ you could kill him!"

"But I couldn't wait!" exclaimed Maurice. "That stupid feathered freak ruined my beautiful face! And my leg!"

"SHUT UP WHEN I AM TALKING!" shouted Mauro. The two marmosets standing on either side of Maurice, named Roberto and Miguel, cowered under their king's fury, but Maurice just crossed his arms. "Your face is not beautiful either. You've always looked like a chicken butt."

"THAT'S BECAUSE IT WAS RUINED BY THAT TINY FEATHERED FREAK!" Maurice yelled back, pointing at the scar on his face. Mauro, Miguel, and Roberto stared at him. _Nobody _yelled at the king. Miguel looked like he was about to have a heart attack. Roberto actually passed out.

"No, no, you were always ugly," stated Mauro calmly. He turned around to go sit back on his throne.

Maurice clenched his fists in fury. "I should have been the king," he stated. Mauro stopped dead in his tracks. Roberto, who had been repeatedly slapped by Miguel, woke up. When he heard what Maurice said, he passed out again, and Miguel went right back to slapping him.

"What did you say," said Mauro without turning around. It was more of a demand than a question.

"I _said_, that _I _should have been the king," snarled Maurice.

Mauro walked up to his throne and sat down. "You three are banished. Goodbye."

Maurice hadn't been expecting this. "What?"

"You three are banished," restated Mauro. "Wake that idiot and leave now." He pointed at Roberto, who was still being whacked even though he was already awake. Miguel stopped slapping Roberto, and Roberto punched Miguel in the face as he stood up.

"What happened?" Roberto asked Miguel, rubbing his sore face.

"We got banished," whispered Miguel, rubbing his now bruised nose.

"Yes, you three are banished as of now. If I find you anywhere near here ever again, you'll be handed over to the birds, and they won't hesitate to give you flying lessons!" exclaimed Mauro.

"Fine," whispered Maurice. He limped over to a bush a few feet away and pulled a large empty glass bottle out from under it. "I'll just take my thing and go." He started to walk away, dragging the bottle with him, but he turned back to Roberto and Miguel, still standing there, not knowing what to do.

Maurice turned back to them. "C'mon, you two are coming with _me_ now."

With one last glance at their king, who sat staring emotionless, the two marmosets stumbled backwards and ran after Maurice, disappearing into the depths of the jungle.

**xxx**

"Aww, man it's good to be home," muttered Nico as he flopped down on the pile of leaves that he called his bed.

"Hey, don't get too comfy," said Pedro, on the other side of the hollow, sitting on his own bed. "You're probably gonna be ambushed by the kids."

"No way," said Nico, sitting up, wincing a little at his sore chest. "They don't even know I'm back yet."

Pedro looked kinda guilty. "Um... well..."

Nico sat up straight and looked right at Pedro. "You-"

"UNCLE NICO!" was the only warning Nico got before he was tackled to the ground by three blue-feathered little balls of energy.

"I told you he was alive!" said one of the kids. Nico thought that one sounded like Rey, but he couldn't tell if it was Rey or Javier because they were all moving around, trying to hug him at the same time.

"I already _knew_ he was alive!"

"Uncle Pedro told us you were coming home today and I wanted to come see you!"

"No it was _my_ idea!"

"But I got here first!"

"Would you two shut up?" That one was definitely Abelina, trying to quiet her brothers.

"Can't breathe down here!" exclaimed Nico. He honestly couldn't move, and his left wing was pinned under his back, making it sore.

"Kids, get off Nico!" exclaimed Blu from the entrance of the hollow, where he and Jewel had just arrived.

Abelina scrambled up, and her brothers eventually got up, but they got into a wrestling match. Blu tried desperately to separate them. Jewel just laughed and shook her head. Blu's attempts to separate his children just ended up in Rey and Javier jumping on _him_. Even Abelina jumped on.

Nico pushed himself to his feet, trying to regain circulation in his wing, and looked over at Pedro, who was laughing so hard he couldn't even stand up.

"Thanks for the help," said Nico coldly. Pedro only laughed in return, and Nico couldn't help but smile.

Jewel stepped around the pile of young Macaws, with Blu squirming underneath, and walked over to Nico. "How are you doing?" she asked in a caring, motherly tone.

"'Lot better," said Nico, picking his bottle cap up from where it fell on the floor when he was attacked.

"Good," said Jewel. She turned around. "Kids, get off your father!"

"Awwww," moaned the kids as they stood up and let Blu get to his feet.

"Why don't they listen to me like that?" Blu muttered under his breath. This comment almost sent Pedro into another laughing fit.

There was a flutter of wings as Rafael arrived at the entrance. "What's up party birds?"

"Hey, Ralfy!" exclaimed Nico.

"Hey Nico! Where you been?"

Nico shrugged. "On the ground," he said, looking at the young Macaws. All three of them looked away guiltily.

Jewel looked down at her children. "Alright kids, say goodbye to your Uncles. It's time to go."

"Aww, Mamma, why do we have to go?" moaned Javier, looking sadly up at Jewel with his large turquoise eyes.

"Because it's getting late, and you kids still need to eat dinner," said Jewel, gesturing to the orange sky and the setting sun.

"But why does Papa get to stay?" asked Rey.

"Because _he_ can find his own dinner," said Jewel. With that, she walked to the entrance of the hollow and jumped out, gracefully gliding about 50 feet away and patiently waiting for her children to follow. When they did, they all soared back to their tree.

"So... did you guys find anything?" asked Nico, crossing his wings over his chest, hiding most of the semi-healed gash on his chest.

"Well, we found the... weapons, but we didn't find anything else. It's almost like they disappeared off the face of the earth!" exclaimed Blu.

"We can worry about those monkeys another night," said Pedro. He turned to Nico. "You in the mood for a party?"

"A party?" asked Nico.

"Yeah! Down at the Alley," said Pedro.

Nico shrugged. "Sounds cool to me. When is it?"

"Tonight."

"We don't have to perform, do we?" Nico wasn't sure his body would be able to handle singing and dancing so soon after getting back on his feet.

"No, we ain't performing," said Pedro. "Just hangin' out! Think of it as a welcome home party!"

Nico looked at Blu and Rafael. "Are you guys coming?"

Rafael nodded eagerly, but Blu looked a bit less enthusiastic.

"Well, I'll have to run it by Jewel," he said.

"C'mon Blu," said Rafael, "I don't think Jewel would mind if you took a night off."

"Y-you really don't?" asked Blu nervously. There wasn't anything that scared him more than Jewel's wrath, and nobody could blame him.

"We won't even be gone that long," said Pedro. "Just a few hours."

"I-I don't know. That's still a long time..."

"Aw, c'mon Blu, have a little fun every once in a while," said Nico.

Blu sighed. "Alright, alright, fine! But when I get home, if Jewel asks me where I was and threatens to claw my eyes out again, I am blaming all of you!"

"She threatened to claw your eyes out before?" gasped Rafael.

"Yes. The first time we met," said Blu, his eyes glazing over and a goofy smile appearing on his face.

"Yeah... anyways," said Pedro, turning to Nico. "You better party hard because this is your last night of freedom."

"What's _that_ supposed to mean?" asked Nico.

"It means that tomorrow, I'm gonna start helping you get rid of your claustrophobia," said Pedro.

Nico closed his eyes and groaned. "Ugh, I forgot about that... Can't we start next week?"

"And let you chicken out? I don't think so," quoted Pedro. Nico couldn't help but smile. That was exactly what he had said to Pedro right before teaching him how to swim.

"Claustrophobia?" asked Blu.

"It's a fear of small spaces," explained Nico.

"I know what it is," snapped Blu. "But I didn't know you were claustrophobic."

"That's because I didn't want anyone to know," growled Nico. "Pedro and Ralfy were the only other ones who knew before this."

"Why? W-what happened?" asked Blu.

Rafael shook his head. "It's a really long story."

"Well, we've got time," said Blu.

Pedro and Rafael looked over to Nico, who was fiddling with his bottle cap. "Let's just tell him," Nico muttered, looking down at the ground.

"Okay... do you want me to tell it?" asked Pedro

"No," said Nico. "Let me tell the story." He took a deep breath and began.

"It happened a couple years ago, before I even got my bottle cap. Pedro and I were hanging out, trying to figure out a song we could sing at the Alley, but we couldn't agree on one. We started fighting, and I got angry, so I flew off for a while.

"The never ending battle between birds and monkeys had started about a year before, and for a young bird, flying around distracted was never really a good idea.

"It was getting kinda late, and I was tired from flying around, so I found an empty table outside a cafe and sat there for a while. I was so distracted that I didn't even hear them sneaking up on me until it was too late.

"One of them grabbed me from behind, and another one found a bottle. Back then, I was even smaller than this, so they had no trouble getting me inside. They capped the bottle and started to run off. I don't know what would have happened if Pedro and Rafael hadn't shown up..."

"I had been looking for him everywhere," continued Pedro, "and when I couldn't find him, I went to Rafael for help."

"When we got there, the monkeys already had him trapped inside the bottle, and they were dragging the bottle off towards the beach," said Rafael. He looked right at Blu. "You do the math."

Blu was stunned, but he was glad Nico didn't go into details about the fear he must have felt, being trapped in that bottle.

"How did you get him out?" asked Blu.

Pedro and Rafael looked at each other. "Well, let's just say that when you drop a bunch of rocks from high up, the do some damage," said Pedro.

"Each monkey got hit and knocked out," said Nico. "The last rock shattered the bottle." He paused for a minute as if remembering something. Then he smiled. "But that's how I got this." Nico took off his bottle cap and held it up proudly.

"You kept the bottle cap from the bottle that you could have _died_ in?" gasped Blu, shocked. "Why?"

Nico shrugged. "Pride, I guess. I didn't want those stupid monkeys to know they scared me! I guess it's also kind of a trophy. Y'know, it's like a trophy that says 'I survived a monkey attack' or something like that. I don't know, it's too complicated to explain."

"Wait a second. What about the Alley? It's so crowded that you can't even breathe without getting a mouthful of feathers," said Blu.

"I'm cool around other birds, but if I'm in a small space alone, then I pretty much just freak out," said Nico. "Like when we were trapped in those cages, I was kinda okay because Pedro and Ralfy were in there too, but if I was alone, I would have been ramming against the door trying to get out."

"And that's why he was the first one out of the cage," said Pedro. "And when that plane hatch opened, it took me half an hour to catch up to him!"

Nico smiled evilly up at Blu. "Now you know, and you will _never_ tell anyone unless your life depends on it. Got it?"

Blu took a nervous step back, almost falling out of the hollow. "Why do I feel threatened?" he asked nervously.

"I'll take that as a yes," said Nico. He narrowed his eyes at the opportunity to have a good laugh. Should he do it? Of course!

Nico lunged forward at Blu, making a sound he previously thought only angry dogs could make. Blu tripped backwards and fell out of the hollow. Nico stepped up to the edge just in time to see Blu splash down into the pond below.

"So that's a yes?" Nico called down. Blu just groaned as the others laughed.

**xxx**

About an hour later, Nico, Pedro, Rafael, and Blu arrived at the Alley. Even from outside, they could hear music and see lights coming from inside.

"Good to be home," muttered Nico, smiling.

They walked in and Blu started muttering something about 'health code violations,' but all complaints were swept away by the music and the crowd.

**3 hours later**

For the first time in Nico's life, he felt tired of dancing. Basically, he was just exhausted and his chest hurt, but that was enough.

Nico flew over top of the crowd until he found Pedro, right in the middle, breakdancing. The crowd around him was chanting: "Go Pedro, go Pedro, go Pedro!"

Nico laughed. He didn't want to interrupt Pedro, so instead he flew around a bit until he found Blu and Rafael near the edge of the crowd. Blu was pacing around, obviously anxious to get back to Jewel and the kids. Rafael was just laughing at him, probably telling him to relax.

Nico landed beside Rafael. "You guys having fun?" he asked.

Rafael's answer was cut off by Blu. "If by _fun_ you mean having a panic attack and wanting to get home, then yes, I'm having _loads_ of fun!"

"Calm down Blu," said Rafael. "If I didn't know any better, I'd say _you're _claustrophobic."

"Hey guys, when you see Pedro, can you tell him I went home?" asked Nico.

"Yeah," said Rafael. "Why are you leaving?"

Nico shrugged and crossed his wings over his chest, once again covering the cut. "Just tired."

Rafael seemed to understand. "Why don't you tell Pedro yourself? He was just here a second ago..."

Nico pointed behind him to the crowd, where the faint chants of "go Pedro, go Pedro, go Pedro," could still be heard.

"Oh. Don't worry, I'll tell him," said Rafael.

"I-I think I'm gonna go too," said Blu.

"Blu, you need to relax and have some fun!" exclaimed Rafael.

"I do have fun. I have plenty of fun... some other place."

"Blu, just stay here and have some fun," said Nico. "Tell ya what. How 'bout, on my way home, I'll stop by your place and tell Jewel where you are. Alright?"

Blu sighed, defeated. "Alright, fine. I'll stay. Happy?"

"That depends," said Nico. "Promise to try to have fun, and then I'll be happy."

"Fine, I'll try and have some fun," said Blu.

"Good," said Nico. He turned to fly off, but he heard someone calling his name.

"Nico! Hey Nico, wait up!"

Nico turned around to see Pedro flying over to him.

"Where ya goin'?" asked Pedro.

"I'm headin' home," said Nico, once again crossing his wings over his cut. Pedro had realized that whenever he did that, it meant his cut was bothering him.

"I get it," he said. "Want me to come?"

"Nah, I'm cool. Just _please_ make sure Blu has fun," said Nico.

"Can I use-"

"_NO_, you can NOT use alcohol!"

Pedro slumped his shoulders. "Fine."

"I'm right here! I can hear every word you're saying!" exclaimed Blu.

Nico shook his head. "See ya later."

Nico walked over to the entrance and flew off into the night sky. The moon was exactly a week away from being full, but it was still bright enough to illuminate all of Rio.

Nico flew higher into the sky until he felt he could touch the heavens. The night was so clear that he could practically count every single star. It was a random thought, but he felt really sorry for any agoraphobic birds.

Nico closed his eyes, enjoying the feeling of the wind in his feathers. It had been too long since he last flew this high. The air was thinner up here, and it was much easier to breath up here than down in the humid jungle air.

With a sigh, Nico opened his eyes. He had left the city behind and was now looking down on the jungle. As he descended, he started whistling Fly Love. The music filled the quiet night, making everything more relaxing and peaceful.

He kept whistling until he got near the tree that was the Blue Macaw residence. Keeping quiet so as not to wake the sleeping kids, he stood at the entrance. Jewel wasn't asleep, so she saw Nico instantly.

"Where are the others?" she whispered.

"At the Alley," he whispered back. "We forced Blu to go."

"Basically," admitted Nico. "I was headin' back home anyways, and he asked me to stop by and make sure you were okay."

Jewel smiled. "When he gets home I'll tell him I appreciate his concern."

Nico smiled. "G'night."

"Goodnight, Nico."

Nico let himself fall backwards through the air, flipping over and gaining lift when he only had a few feet left. He flew over the surface of the pond, barely skimming the surface. He then flew straight up into the air, doing a barrel roll every so often. However, his barrel rolls were cut short by a sharp jolt of pain in his chest, reminding him to take it easy.

Sighing, Nico flew towards his tree. He landed inside the hollow, and walked towards his bed, yawning. A good night sleep would really do him some good.

He never made it to his bed.

A strong arm wrapped around his neck from behind, choking him. He felt something sharp cut into his left shoulder, which really sucks because he's a lefty, and the hold on his neck tightened even more.

The edges of Nico's vision were turning black as he lost more air. He lurched forward, trying to break the grip of his attacker, but it was too strong. All he succeeded in doing was knocking his bottle cap off of his head and onto the ground.

His lungs were screaming for air. In a last ditch effort to escape, Nico bit the arm that was wrapped around his neck. The owner of the arm yelped and loosened his grip a little, but not enough, because before Nico could make a break for it, the arms tightened around his neck even harder than before.

Everything was turning black. Nico finally lost the ability to keep his eyes open. He finally went limp and blacked out, but not before hearing an evil laugh.

**xxx**

Pedro stumbled into the hollow a few hours later, dizzy from being ever so slightly intoxicated. He walked forward a bit, but his foot hit something. Looking down, Pedro picked it up. In the darkness, it looked like a sharp rock.

Pedro walked back to the entrance of the hollow and held the rock up in the moonlight. It took him a moment to realize what was _on_ the rock: blood.

The fogginess in Pedro's mind disappeared. "Nico?" he called out, searching around the hollow. His eyes had adjusted to the light a little bit, and he could just pick out something laying on the floor. Cautiously walking forward, Pedro picked it up and instantly realized what it was: it was Nico's bottle cap.

Pedro gasped. He began to walk towards Nico's bed, but that was when he stepped in something. Pedro looked down and his heart nearly stopped. His foot was in a puddle of blood.

"NICO!" cried Pedro. He got no response.

Nico wasn't there.


	2. Saving Nico

_A/N: Here we go! By the way, the rating is biased on my little brother, and this chapter should probably be rated T due to horrible misuse of a bottle. One more thing: does anybody who reads this draw? I was wondering if anyone would be interested in drawing some of the scenes in this and my other Rio story. PM if interested. =D No butterflies were harmed in the making of this chapter. The same cannot be said for birds or monkeys._

_Edit: Okay, I'm switching the ratings. This story is rated T, and my other one is now rated K+. Sorry for the wait. I hope it was worth the wait. And I made this LONG, so you better make your reviews long too! Or else..._

**Bottled Up (pt 2)**

Blu and Rafael stepped out of the Alley, tired and ready to go home, and not 2 seconds later, Pedro ran smack into Blu, traveling so fast that you would think he had just re-entered the atmosphere. He darn near put a crater in the ground.

"WHAT THE-" shouted Blu as he lay on his back on the ground.

"Nico's gone!" gasped Pedro, stepping off of his blue-feathered landing platform.

"What?" asked Rafael and Blu at the same time.

"I was j-just at the tree and he w-wasn't there! But this was..." Pedro held up the sharp blood-crusted rock and Nico's bottle cap. "T-there was a pool of blood. I... I think the monkeys got him!"

"Pedro, calm down!" exclaimed Rafael. Pedro tried to take a deep breath, but it was pretty much impossible. He was already a nervous wreck, even if Nico had only been missing for a few hours. "Let's go back to your tree and we'll see if we can find anything else. Okay?"

Pedro gulped and looked up at Rafael with big watery eyes. He took a shaky deep breath and nodded.

Rafael looked at Blu, still sprawled on his back. "Blu, you okay?"

Blu moaned. "I think I've got a dent." He got to his feet and his back made a wicked cracking noise. "Ugh, that's gonna hurt in the morning..."

"You guys! _Let's go!_" exclaimed Pedro, and he took off into the air. Rafael nodded at Blu and they took off, trying to keep up with Pedro the whole way home.

About 10 minutes later, they arrived at Pedro and Nico's tree. The sky was beginning to grow brighter with the coming dawn, and the hollow was slightly more illuminated now. The pool of blood was dried up but still visible.

Rafael and Blu entered after Pedro. They all fanned out and looked around the hollow, but 20 minutes of searching wielded nothing. After a while, Pedro sat down and rocked himself back and forth, looking dangerously close to a panic attack. Rafael noticed this and came over to him.

"Hey, Pedro, it's gonna be okay," said Rafael, placing a comforting wing around his shoulder. "We know who took him. We'll get him back."

Pedro was still shaking. "This is all my fault! I should have gone home with him." He looked up at Rafael. "What if they already killed him?" he whispered. "What if we're already too late?"

Rafael shook his head. "Don't think like that. No matter what, we'll find those monkeys, and we'll find Nico." Suddenly, a horrible thought passed through his mind. _Or we'll find his body..._

"You really think we will?" asked Pedro hopefully.

Rafael hid doubts. "Of course we will."

"Hey, look at this!" exclaimed Blu, pointing at something on the ground. Pedro stood up and he and Rafael walked over to where Blu was kneeling.

Blu was crouched next to the puddle of dried blood. "Look," he said.

Pedro bent down to get a closer look, but he couldn't quite see what Blu saw. However, after looking for about 30 seconds, Pedro saw it: a slightly bloody patch of gray fur. Monkey fur.

"Well look at that," muttered Rafael. "Looks like Nico fought back."

Pedro shook his head. "Not hard enough. He was still weak from recovery, so he probably just got in one hit." Pedro picked up the patch of hair. "At least we know who _our_ victim's gonna be."

Pedro stood up straight and paced around for a minute. "We've gotta go find him!" he exclaimed.

"We will," said Rafael. "Let me go tell Eva what's going on. Blu, you go tell Jewel and the kids. Pedro, just... try not to have a panic attack. Wait here, and we'll meet back up here and go. Sound good?"

Pedro bit his lip and nodded. Rafael and Blu took off, leaving Pedro alone in the empty hollow. Pedro walked forward and stood on the very edge of the hollow. The sun had risen over the horizon, turning the sky a brilliant shade of orange and pink. It had been a while since Pedro had seen the sun rise. He only hoped that Nico would live to see another one.

"Hold on little brother," whispered Pedro. "We're comin' for ya."

**xxx**

Day 1

The sun was high in the sky. It must have been around noon, but it was still scorching, and the light was blinding. There was a strange sound in the background that sounded almost like a roar.

The air was _way_ too humid; it must have been at least 100 degrees! Normally it didn't get this hot until around 3, and this made Nico think something was wrong. Very wrong.

He slowly opened his eyes, only to snap them closed again as the glare from the midday sun blinded him and caused a flash of pain to shoot through his skull. Confused and disoriented, he sat up, moaning. For some reason he couldn't remember, he was so sore he almost cried out.

Nico tried to move around some, but a searing pain in his chest and shoulder caused him to stop. He looked down at his chest and saw that the knife wound had been slightly reopened.

_How did that open up again?_ Nico wondered.

Nico looked at his shoulder and gasped. Half of his left wing was covered in dried, crusted blood, and there was a large fresh cut on his shoulder. Suddenly, he remembered where he got it. His hands quickly went to his neck, which he found bruised and sore to the touch. The whole attack from the night before came flooding back to him.

_Where am I?_

Nico forced himself to stand up, but the ground felt strange under his feet; different yet familiar, almost like a long lost memory.

A wave of dizziness came over Nico and he stumbled backwards, only for his back to hit something hard and smooth. It was then that he finally took in his surroundings, and when he realized where he was and why it seemed familiar, he almost passed out right then and there.

Nico was trapped in a large glass bottle.

His breathing and heart rate accelerated, and he felt a full fledged panic attack coming on. The glass walls of the bottle started to close in on him, and his claustrophobia hit him harder than a bus.

_I gotta get out of here!_

Nico's eyes fell on the capped opening to the bottle. This bottle cap was bigger than his, which would make escape even more difficult.

He quickly crawled up the neck of the bottle and pushed on the cap as hard as he could with his good shoulder. He had to keep walking in place because his feet couldn't get traction on the smooth glass.

After a minute of trying to push the cap off from the inside, Nico's feet finally slipped, and he slowly slid down the neck of the bottle, back to where he was a few minutes ago.

Nico began to panic again. There wasn't any way out of here! The humid air became even more difficult to breathe, and his panicked eyes couldn't focus on what was outside of the glass prison.

Looking around, Nico saw that there were a few cracks in the wall of the bottle that made the roof. If Nico stretched, he could touch the top of the bottle.

Standing on his toes, Nico punched the glass as hard as he could. Because his left shoulder was injured, he was forced to use his weaker right hand to hit the glass.

The glass didn't even budge. Nico slammed his fist into it again, harder than he had ever hit with his right hand before. This time, the glass made a cracking noise, and a small fragment of the bottle popped out, creating a tiny opening just big enough for Nico's hand to fit through. But it still wasn't enough.

Looking around desperately, Nico rammed himself into the side of the bottle. His head bounced against the glass, and that was when Nico realized that he wasn't wearing his bottle cap. After a minute, he realized it had fallen off when he was attacked, and Pedro probably found it.

If there was any comfort in losing his bottle cap, it was that Pedro would know something was wrong and come looking for him. But still, _he lost his bottle cap_! Without it, he felt empty and exposed to attack, even though no one could attack him from inside the bottle. Or... could they?

_Calm down Nico, just calm down,_ he told himself. _They're probably out there right now looking for you. Everything's gonna be okay. Just... calm... down..._

Nico was starting to get dizzy again. He just couldn't take the sudden stress of being trapped. The heat, the light, the lack of breathable air, the strange sound in the background, the pain in his chest and shoulder; all of it blurred together. Breathing became difficult. Standing became impossible. Passing out was inevitable.

Nico's eyes slid closed and he slumped to the ground unconscious.

**30 minutes later**

"He seriously _was_ awake!" exclaimed Roberto. Maurice just crossed his arms looked at the unconscious form of the little canary.

"What did he do?" asked Maurice, rubbing a sore spot on his arm where a patch of hair was missing (courtesy of Nico).

"He woke up and just freaked out," said Roberto, looking a little pale.

"Looks like he did some damage too," said Miguel, observing the chip in the bottle. "How'd he do that?"

"Who cares," said Maurice. "Miguel, you're on watch now. _Let me know if he wakes up!_ I wanna be there when he realized that all hope is gone." Maurice began to pace back and forth in front of the bottle. He kept glancing at Nico's limp body, a look of hatred and disgust crossing his face every time. "I may have _tried_ to kill him last time, but this time, I won't fail."

He turned to the unconscious form of Nico. "And _that_ is a promise..."

**xxx**

"NICO!" shouted Pedro as he, Blu, and Rafael flew over the beach. It was only natural for Pedro to want to check there first, because of what happened the _last time_ Nico had been taken captive by monkeys.

Behind Pedro flew Rafael and Blu. Rafael's left eye was a bit swollen, suggesting that either Eva or his children weren't too happy about him leaving.

Jewel, on the other hand, was truly peeved. She would have started screaming if her children hadn't still been asleep. She was enraged that she didn't get to be part of the search, but Blu had kept asking her to keep watch on the children. He didn't want to risk endangering them.

They eventually settled on an agreement: on the first day of the search, Jewel would watch the kids, but she and Blu would alternate between searching and parenting. Hopefully they would find Nico before they got a chance to start the pattern.

They had no such luck at finding the missing canary. Pedro was still going strong, but Blu and Rafael were exhausted. Eventually, Pedro sensed this and slowed down.

"Hey, you guys know you can go back home," said Pedro, his voice heavy with worry and disappointment. "It's almost sunset."

"What about you?" asked Rafael, his normally cheery voice coming out as just plain exhausted.

Pedro shrugged. "I'll head back in a bit. But you guys look like you're about to drop dead." He looked directly at Blu.

Rafael looked at Blu too. "Okay Blu?"

Blu didn't have the energy to talk. Instead, he just moaned. He was flying slow and sluggishly, not even bothering to keep his head up or his eyes open. It was incredible that he hadn't fallen out of the sky yet. Pedro even suspected he was sleep flying.

"Blu?" Rafael tried again. "BLU!"

Blu's head snapped up. "WHO? WHAT? HOW?" gasped Blu.

"Good, you're awake," muttered Pedro.

"Now," groaned Blu, his eyes starting to close again. "When was the last time we got to sleep?"

"You fell asleep in a corner at the Alley," said Rafael.

"Doesn't count," muttered Blu. "It was probably 48 hours ago."

"Sleeping, or your Alley nap?"

"Sleep..."

Rafael looked up at Pedro, who was wide-eyed and alert. "How are you so awake?" he asked. "It's been 48 hours since you last slept!"

Pedro shrugged, looking down at the beach below, looking for any signs of his friend. "Y'know, I guess when your best friend's life is on the line, you're gonna be awake!" snapped Pedro. After a minute, he sighed. "Can you take Blu home before he uh... checks out?"

Rafael nodded and turned to the sleepy Macaw. "C'mon Blu. Let's get you home." He turned back to Pedro. "Don't stay out too late."

Pedro nodded. "Don't worry."

Rafael gave him a fleeting smile before changing course back to the jungle, nudging Blu in the right direction. Pedro returned his gaze to the beach. It wasn't as crowded now as it had been, but even now Pedro saw no signs of his friend.

Pedro finally gave up on the beach and started to head back to the forest as promised. It was clear now that Nico was either being held captive in the city or in the forest somewhere. But the question was: _where_?

That night Pedro returned to an empty hollow. He didn't even lie down; he just spent the whole night pacing around, thinking, and waiting for sunrise, when the search would continue.

**xxx**

Day 2

A whole night had passed by the time Nico woke up again. It was early morning, but the air in the bottle was still humid and even harder to breathe. He blinked against the blinding light, which was abnormally brighter than normal.

Nico painstakingly scrambled to his feet. He was shaking, and his shoulder and chest still hurt, but the cut on his shoulder was shallow and had already started to close up again. It would probably be healed in two days.

Nico looked around, not as panic stricken as he had been yesterday. He looked up at the hole he had made in the roof, only then realizing he had a thin cut on his right hand, probably from breaking the glass. It was small, but it hurt like crazy to touch.

Nico stumbled across the slippery surface and stood under the hole he had made. He actually found it easier to breathe under the hole.

Now that he wasn't in a blind panic, and he was actually getting kinda used to the enclosed bottle, Nico found it easier to get a better look around.

Pressing his face against the glass, he couldn't see much but leaves and rocks. Facing this direction, the strange roaring noise sounded louder.

Not seeing much, he turned the other direction. The first thing he saw was a massive tree, shooting up a solid 100 feet into the sky. The next thing he saw was the sleeping marmoset, lying on one of the roots of the massive tree.

The monkey was pretty much out cold, laying sprawled on it's back with it's mouth wide open and it's tongue hanging out. An ocean of drool had formed under it's head, and it was snoring profusely.

_Oh my god,_ thought Nico. _Am I at the monkey camp?_

Looking around, Nico didn't see any more monkeys. Then again, it was possible that if he were at the monkey camp, then they were all hiding in the tree or something.

Something flew over top of Nico's bottle, and he ducked before realizing that it was a butterfly. The butterfly fluttered towards the sleeping monkey, landing peacefully on it's nose. The monkey twitched and sneezed. The butterfly fluttered up into the air for a minute before eventually flying down again... and landing right in the monkey's open mouth.

The monkey sat bolt upright, gagging, and spit the butterfly out. The wet butterfly sluggishly flew away.

It probably wasn't the best time for Nico to start laughing, but he simply couldn't help it. That monkey's face was totally priceless.

The monkey seemed to hear him laughing, and it looked right at him. Nico's laughter caught in his throat, and fear replaced it.

Instead of attacking him, however, the monkey turned and scrambled up the tree, disappearing in the leaves. Nico pressed is face against the glass, trying to see where the monkey went.

After a few minutes, Nico didn't see or hear anything. He started to relax a bit. Bad choice.

The bottle lurched forward as if it had been kicked. Nico fell backwards and tumbled around inside the bottle. The bottle rolled forward a couple feet before finally stopping.

Nico sat up dizzily, feeling ready to throw up. The hole he had made the day before was now on the wall right in front of him. He stood up and grabbed the hole for something sturdy to hold on to. As he was sucking in breaths of fresh air, something stood in front of the bottle. Recognizing who it was, Nico almost passed out again.

"Miss me?" asked a menacing, hate-filled voice.

Scar-face was here.

**xxx**

"We checked the beaches yesterday, and he wasn't there. So he's either in the city or in the forest," said Pedro.

"Okay, but those monkeys know their way around the city as well as they know the jungle," said Jewel. "Why don't we check the city first?"

"I just got a feeling they're keeping him in the forest," said Pedro, scanning the leaf covered ground. "Besides, the forest is huge! It'll take us days to cover it all. They'll want us to have a hard time finding him."

"But if it's going to take us a few days, and the city would only take us one day, why shouldn't we start with the city. What if they were holding him captive in the city, and we took all this time searching the forest when he was right there. What if by the time we got to the city it was too late?"

This caused Pedro to stop in midair, hovering in place. He turned to look at Jewel. "You're right," he muttered. "We should probably go check the city."

As they changed courses and headed to the city, Pedro said: "Sorry I didn't think of that. I guess I don't really think the same when I'm freaked out..."

Rafael spoke up. "Pedro, did you even go to sleep last night?"

Pedro looked offended. "Yes!" A second later, he sighed, defeated. "No. I couldn't!"

"You're gonna have to, or I'm going to tie you down to your bed until you fall asleep," threatened Rafael. Pedro could tell he wasn't kidding.

Pedro shook his head, and the conversation ended with the jungle line. They were in the city, and the search continued.

**xxx**

"What do you want?" gasped Nico, completely terrified. This monkey had tried to kill him before, and he didn't doubt that he would try again.

"What I want?" asked the crazy monkey. At this point, two other monkeys practically fell out of the tree. One of them started coughing. The scarred monkey turned to the one that was coughing. "Shut up Miguel! I don't care if you ate a butterfly."

The monkey, Miguel, put his hand over his mouth and sat down. The monkey standing next to him snickered.

"You too Roberto. SHUT UP!" Roberto shut up and sat down next to Miguel.

"Idiots," muttered the monkey, who had yet to give Nico his name. He turned back to Nico and crouched down, getting eye to eye with the trembling canary. "I never answered your question. What I want is to watch you _die_ slowly and painfully."

Nico was officially scared out of his wits. He slowly backed up against the wall of the bottle farthest away from the deranged monkey.

Smiling, the monkey stood up and began pacing back and forth in front of the bottle. "Where are my manners? I am Maurice, brother of the king. And I am here to make sure you don't live another week."

Somehow, Nico found the courage to stand up. "Why do you wanna kill me? What did I ever do to _you_?"

Maurice slowly turned to look at Nico. "What did you ever do to me? _What did you ever do to me?_" At this, he started to laugh. Miguel and Roberto started to laugh too, until Maurice turned to them and yelled: "WHAT ARE YOU IDIOTS LAUGHING AT? SHUT UP!"

Maurice turned back to Nico. "Look at _this._" He pointed to the scar on his face, the scar left by Nico's bottle cap. "_You_ did this! You ruined my beautiful face!"

"Weird, I didn't think I threw it _that_ hard," said Nico, crossing his wings over his chest in defiance. He refused to let this monkey think he was scared.

"SHUT UP!" shouted Maurice. He grabbed the neck of the bottle and violently shook it, causing Nico inside to crash to the ground, hitting the back of his head.

Nico moaned and sat up as Maurice continued, acting like his fit of rage had never happened. "You also ruined my leg."

"_How_ in the world did I do that?" gasped Nico, still on the ground, rubbing the sore spot on the back of his head.

"I said _shut up!_" exclaimed Maurice. He kicked the bottle this time, making it roll backwards a bit. When it stopped, the hole was in the same place as before, but a little closer to the ground. Nico hadn't damaged anything with this roll, but he was still too dizzy to sit up without leaning against the wall.

"Now," said Maurice, "you ruined my leg at the same time you ruined my face. When I let go of your blue friend after being whacked in the face... how hard do you think the landing was?"

_Honestly, not hard enough,_ thought Nico. He knew better than to talk out loud.

"And now _this_!" exclaimed Maurice, holding up his arm for Nico to see. When Nico saw the bloody patch of hairless skin, he felt proud that his bite had inflicted at least _some_ damage.

_You had it coming_, thought Nico, narrowing his eyes and trying not to smile.

Maurice stared at Nico, as if reading his thoughts. The monkey reached down and grabbed the bottle. Nico flinched, preparing for another rolling or brutal shaking. However, Maurice didn't shake or roll the bottle. He simply turned it so that the hole was on the floor of the bottle. Nico didn't see the purpose of this until Maurice said it.

"Have fun suffocating." With that, he turned and walked off, his nervous cronies following him up into the tree.

Nico sat for a minute after they disappeared, hoping he had misunderstood what Maurice had just said. But he knew he couldn't deny it. The air was getting thicker and harder to breathe, and the sun shining down on the bottle creating a greenhouse effect didn't help at all.

After a few failed attempts, Nico stood up and staggered to the hole he had made, which was now facing the leaf covered ground. He got down on his knees and pressed his hand against the ground outside the bottle. However, instead of feeling solid ground like he had feared, the leaves fell away to reveal a narrow chasm, directly below the hole. If he listened closely, Nico could hear a small stream of water rushing deep below.

_That ain't gonna be enough,_ thought Nico. He looked up from the hole and looked towards the neck of the bottle. It was then that he finally noticed that there were a few small cracks in the glass roof at the base of the neck, probably from the tumble the bottle had taken.

Nico scrambled up to the neck of the bottle. Standing under it, he observed the cracks and saw that they might have been even bigger and deeper than the ones he used to make the hole the day before. Steeling himself, Nico whacked the glass with his right hand.

"GAH!" yelped Nico, grabbing his throbbing hand. Now that he wasn't fueled by adrenaline and claustrophobic panic attacks, he could feel the pain.

Nico was tempted to stop right there, but when he tried to take a deep breath, the coughing fit he was rewarded with reminded him why he needed to continue.

Nico looked back up at the glass, bit his tongue, and whacked it again. This time there was a _crunch_ noise, followed by the cracks expanding and connecting. Another punch caused a chip of the glass to push its way out some.

_Just one more,_ thought Nico, his eyes watery from the pain emanating from his hand. _Better to cripple my right hand than my left._

Nico started to get dizzy as the lack of air and exertion of breaking the glass finally got to him. He felt ready to either pass out or be sick.

Gathering all his strength, Nico punched the glass. There was a loud _crack_, but that was all Nico heard before falling to his back and losing consciousness, not knowing if he would ever wake up again.

**xxx**

Pedro flopped down on an empty table and put his head in his wings. "I knew he was in the jungle," he moaned.

Their search of the city had wielded nothing; no monkeys, no Nico. Nothing...

"Well," said Jewel, landing beside the disheartened cardinal, "now, we know he's in the jungle somewhere."

"Yeah, we'll find him," said Rafael, patting Pedro on the back.

"I _know_ we're gonna find him, but _when_?" asked Pedro, looking up at Rafael and Jewel with large, sad eyes, his bottom lip quivering.

No one had an answer. None of them were entirely sure they _would_ find Nico, and with every passing day, the hope faded just a bit more.

Pedro sighed and rubbed his tired eyes. It had now been about 3 days since he last slept, and it was starting to get to him.

Rafael saw Pedro's obvious exhaustion and jumped into the air, flying off and landing a few tables away. He returned with a claw-full of french fries. "You need to eat something," he said in a fatherly tone.

Pedro smiled a bit and gratefully took the fries, realizing he had been starving all day. When was the last time he had eaten anything?

_It doesn't matter,_ he thought.

Pedro was so deep in thought that he almost missed Rafael saying: "We should get back home."

"What? Now?" asked Pedro.

"Yes, now," said Rafael. "Unless you plan on staying out all night with the alley cats."

"He's right Pedro," said Jewel, her motherly tone leaking into her voice. "It's already sunset. It's not really safe out here anymore..."

Pedro slouched, forgetting the fries, and grudgingly stood up. "'Kay," he muttered. The three birds flew off, with Pedro lagging behind.

When they entered the jungle, they all flew in separate directions home. Pedro landed inside his cold, empty hollow. It seemed too big now.

Turning around, Pedro looked left and right. Jewel was already in her tree, and Rafael was just a speck in the distance. Pedro was determined not to spend another night just sitting around. When he could no longer see Rafael, he took off into the darkening sky, back to the city...

**xxx**

Nico slowly opened his eyes as a cool breeze reached his face. The first thing he realized was that he was still alive.

He sat up and groaned as his busted hand throbbed. _That's gonna hurt for a while._

Nico looked at the hole he had created. This one was a bit bigger than the other one, but still too small to fit through. But at least he wouldn't have to worry about suffocation.

Looking at the sky, Nico realized it was about sunset, and he had only been out for a few hours. The air was starting to cool down, and there were no monkeys in sight. They were probably expecting him to die, and they would probably come back tomorrow, expecting to find him dead. They were gonna be in for a surprise.

The temperature started to drop rapidly now. Nico started shivering, and it took him a minute to realize why he was colder than he should be.

It had been extremely hot during the day, and Nico had probably been sweating while he was unconscious. All that water coming off him was making him cold.

Huddling in the corner of the bottle, Nico hugged his wings close to himself. However, he shifted a bit and hit the cut on his wing, the one he had gotten from punching through the glass the first time.

Nico yelped in pain. _Why does this stupid thing hurt so much?_

Gently, Nico placed his left hand on the cut, slowly feeling for the sore spot that kept hurting him. He didn't find anything until he came to where the cut ended near his elbow. There was a strange lump at the end of the cut that stung to the touch.

Carefully pushing his feathers back, Nico looked closely at the wound and was surprised to find a sliver of glass lodged into his wing.

"Oh, come on," muttered Nico. He' d have to... uh, _remove_ the glass before his wing or the cut got infected.

Nico crawled over to the hole in the floor and reached down, grabbing a leaf and pulling it into the bottle. It was about all he would need.

Pushing the feathers back again, Nico took a deep breath and bit down on the glass, using his beak to pull it out. _This would be so much easier if I had actual fingers._

A painful 15 seconds later, Nico managed to successfully remove the glass from his wing. Looking at it, it was no wonder it was hurting him. It looked like a tiny, blood-covered glass spear. After staring at it in horror for a minute, Nico dropped it into the chasm, hopefully never to see it again. There was a distant _plunk_ as the glass dropped into the water at the bottom of the chasm.

A tiny stream of blood oozed out of the slightly reopened wound, and Nico used the edge of the leaf he had acquired to sponge it up. It stopped bleeding less than a minute later.

There was hardly any blood on the leaf, so Nico used it as a blanket, wrapping himself tightly, trying to preserve any heat he could. It was gonna be a cold night.

As Nico waited for sleep to overtake him, he stared up at the moon. It was close to full, and it illuminated the night sky. Nico felt a pang of nostalgia, wondering if he would ever get to fly free again, or if he would even make it out of this bottle alive.

_I wanna go home..._ Nico closed his tired eyes and fell into a cold, fitful sleep, trying to imagine being back home... safe...

**xxx**

Day 3

It was about half an hour until sunrise when Pedro finally returned to his hollow, exhausted and empty-handed. He had spent all night at the Alley, asking anyone if they had seen Nico or a monkey with a scar on his face. No one had. It was almost as if the monkeys, and Nico, had disappeared off the face of the earth...

Pedro sat down in the very center of the hollow, his back to the entrance, facing the wall. He felt so hopeless and exhausted. It was almost like something was physically restraining him from finding his best friend.

At that moment, Pedro realized he was muttering to himself. "Soon... soon... soon..." He couldn't help it; 'soon' was the only word to describe how he felt. _Soon_ they would find Nico. _Soon_ those monkeys would pay. _Soon_ he would be able to rest peacefully again. _Soon_... soon was too far away.

"Pedro?" asked a voice from behind him. Pedro whipped his head around to see Rafael and Blu at the entrance to the hollow. Rafael was the one who had spoken, and now he and Blu took a cautious step back, their eyes wide.

"What?" snarled Pedro.

Rafael took a cautious step forwards, towards the unhinged cardinal. "Pedro, I just want you to calm down. I know you didn't get any sleep at all last night, and since you've gone 4 days without sleep, maybe you should just-"

"HOW'D YA KNOW I DIDN'T GET ANY SLEEP, BIGNOSE? HUH?" shouted Pedro, standing to his full height (which wasn't much) and staring Rafael in the eye. Rafael looked pretty scared, yet he still kept his composure.

"I know you didn't get any sleep," said Rafael calmly, "because your eye is twitching and you were shouting and muttering to yourself."

"Pssh, I do that every full moon," muttered Pedro, looking down.

"Not a full moon yet," said Rafael. "I thought you would know that, after being out all night."

Pedro's bottom lip started quivering, and before he knew what was happening, he broke down and cried; fully, truly, cried. This just proved even further that he was emotionally unstable; he _never_ cried like this. Ever. Heavy sobs shook his whole frame and he sat back down.

Rafael knelt down in front of Pedro and hugged him in his usual fatherly fashion. "Shh, it's okay Pedro. It's okay. Why don't you take the day off. You need the rest."

Pedro shakily nodded and stood up. Rafael led him to his bed and gently laid him down. Pedro was asleep almost instantly. However, right before he fell asleep, he had one last fleeting thought...

_Off the face of the earth..._ But before he could say anything, he was finally, after 4 days, asleep.

**xxx**

Nico slowly opened his eyes and was shocked when he didn't feel any immediate pain. All the bumps and bruises he had received yesterday had pretty much faded, and all that remained of the pain in his hand, chest, and shoulder was just a dull ache.

For a minute, Nico just lay there under his leafy blanket, enjoying the lack of pain. However, he heard footsteps and sat up, slightly dizzy and still kinda cold from the night before.

The footsteps grew closer until he could see the owner: Roberto. The monkey stopped when he saw Nico sitting up.

"You're still alive," muttered Roberto in awe. He looked at the new hole in the glass, and a hint of a slight smile appeared on his face. "Boss ain't gonna be happy."

Nico crossed his wings over his chest, mainly trying to warm back up. "Why should I care what your _boss_ says? And why are you even talking to me? Don't you want me dead?"

Roberto sighed, and to Nico's surprise, he sat down in front of the bottle, looking depressed.

"I don't want you dead," muttered Roberto.

"What?" asked Nico. _What in the world?_ _Am I hearing things? Or am I already dead?_

"You heard me," said Roberto. "I never wanted you dead. I mean, I guess I was mad that you and your red friend knocked me out with a grape, but I guess I had that one coming."

"Wait," said Nico. "Was it you or the other one, Miguel, that hit me with a spoon?"

"Miguel was the one that hit you, and I was the one who hit your friend. Lucky for you, I'm a bit... _squeamish_, and I saw Miguel whack you in the head, and I guess it kinda made me sick. I was supposed to knock out your friend, but I couldn't."

Nico just stared, his mouth hanging open. Did this monkey seriously just open up to him? Wasn't he still being held captive by this monkey and his friends? What the heck was going on? Stupid bipolar marmoset.

"And, you're telling me this because..."

Roberto growled a bit. "I'm sick of working for Maurice. I'm switching sides."

Roberto stood up to walk away. "I better go tell Boss you're alive. He'll be angry."

"Wait!" exclaimed Nico. He wasn't sure he could just trust this monkey yet (and he didn't trust him), but he still had a couple (thousand) questions.

"What?"

"I wanna know something. Why did your stupid boss have to cut my shoulder when he kidnapped me?" asked Nico, gesturing to the healing cut on his left shoulder.

"A couple reasons. First of all, he just wanted to spill your blood." Nico shuddered at that, and Roberto continued. "Second of all, he wanted to leave your blood there to scare your friends and make them think you were dead. But I think by doing that he just gave them a good reason to search for you. And third, he wanted to make sure you wouldn't fight him."

Nico started to say something, but suddenly his chest tightened and he went into a coughing fit. It was one of those coughing fits where you cough so hard you can barely breathe, and Nico had to lean against the wall of the bottle to keep from toppling over.

When the coughing finally subsided, Nico took a few deep breaths and cleared his throat. That was when he realized how thirsty he was. The last time he had drank anything was a few days ago, and he was already dangerously dehydrated.

Roberto saw this and a look of pity crossed his face. However, he just said: "It's supposed to rain tonight," and scampered off.

"Wait!" yelled Nico. However, his voice was feeble and weak from dehydration, and Roberto didn't hear him. But he still asked his question to nobody.

"Where am I?"

**xxx**

Blu and Rafael had searched the entire east side of the jungle by the time the clouds started rolling in. The smell of rain was thick in the air, and a downpour was imminent.

"I guess we should head back," whispered Blu, looking nervously up at the sky.

Rafael looked up too. "Yeah, I'm with ya there."

The two-bird search party turned around and started to make their way back to their grove of trees. They had had no luck at finding Nico, but that was to be expected.

When they were a few minutes away from home, the wind started to pick up. Blu turned to Rafael. "Isn't this what the weather was like when Nico and Pedro got jumped?"

Rafael nodded and looked up again. "Hopefully the storm'll hold long enough for us to get back."

It must have been their lucky day because, just as they flew in the entrance to Pedro's hollow, the heavens opened up and rain thundered down through the trees. Pedro was still sleeping soundly, muttering something about _"off the face of the earth..."_

"Well, at least he's sleeping," said Rafael. In fact, it didn't look like Pedro had even _moved_ from the time they left to the time they returned. Well, if he was still breathing, then he was fine. And yes, he was still breathing.

"What do you think?" asked Blu.

"I think he's gonna keep sleeping until about noon tomorrow," said Rafael.

"It'll do him good," said Blu.

Thunder rumbled outside, and Blu and Rafael could do nothing but sit and wait, thinking about poor little Nico, lost in the rain...

**xxx**

Even if Roberto hadn't told him, Nico knew it was going to rain. His instincts and the smell in the air gave it away before the clouds did. However, if it hadn't been for Roberto's warning, he wouldn't have had time to prepare for the rain.

By the time the clouds started to roll in and the sky darkened, Nico had already completed most of a bowl made of leaves. It wasn't much, but hopefully it would be enough to get him by for a while.

The sky started looking ominous, and even stranger, the clouds looked... kinda... _closer_ to the ground than they normally did.

Just as he was putting the finishing touches on the rain catcher, he heard the shuffling footsteps that he recognized belonged to Maurice. Nico hurriedly pushed the rain catcher into the corner and hid it under the pile of leaves that he was planning on using for blankets.

Maurice rounded the corner with Miguel and Roberto at his heel. Nico crossed his wings over his chest and looked up at Maurice.

Maurice also crossed his arms. "So, you're not dead."

"Clearly," said Nico.

"Well don't worry," said Maurice. "You will be soon." Suddenly, there was a clap of thunder from overhead. The wind had started to pick up and the rain was just starting to fall. Maurice looked up at the sky, then looked over to Roberto. "Cover him up," he said.

Roberto nodded, and Maurice and Miguel scampered back to the tree. Roberto bent down and picked up some leaves. "Boss says I'm supposed to cover the bottle so you don't get any water," explained Roberto in a whisper.

"What?" gasped Nico, pressing his hands and face against the glass, trying to get a better look at what Roberto was doing.

"Shh," whispered Roberto. He grabbed a large funnel-shaped leaf with a narrow end and put the narrow end in the hole in the top of the bottle. "Put the rain catcher under it."

"I think I figured _that_ out," said Nico sarcastically. He then groaned as a massive headache split through his skull. All day long, his muscles had been sore and he had been getting random headaches and having coughing fits; all of them signs of dehydration.

"Good for you," said Roberto sarcastically. He turned and ran off to join his boss and friend up in the tree.

The second he was out of sight, Nico pulled the rain catcher out from under the pile of leaves and positioned it right under the tip of the leaf. Only a few minutes later, the heavens opened up and the rain flooded down from the sky.

Nico watched anxiously as the rainwater collected on the leaf and then slowly, _slowly_, dripped down into the rain catcher. It held.

Breathing a sigh of relief, Nico moved into a position so that the rain water flowed right into his mouth and down his parched throat. Water never tasted so good before.

After drinking as much as he could and even washing himself off a little bit, Nico moved away and allowed the water to flow into the rain catcher. He had to make sure it was as full as it would get. He would have to limit himself, knowing he could only survive for about 3 days without water. Hopefully it would rain again by that time, but then what? How long could he go surviving in this bottle? He knew he had to eat sometime soon, but there wasn't anything.

_Hopefully they'll find me before I die of starvation_, thought Nico. But then a horrible thought occurred to him: what if they had stopped looking for him? What if they thought he was dead and they saw no point in searching?

_No_, he told himself. _They wouldn't do that. I know Pedro, and he'd never stop until they found me or..._ Nico gulped. _...or my body..._

That was when Nico realized how quiet it had gotten. About an hour had passed and the rain had stopped. The bucket was full. And it was already night time. Nico looked up at the sky and saw the clouds dispersing, revealing the starry night sky and the almost-full moon.

"Please hurry," whispered Nico as he curled up under the pile of leaves for warmth, already shivering from being wet and cold. "I can't take this much longer..."

**xxx**

Day 4

Pedro was still asleep the next morning, so Rafael and Jewel decided to let him take one more day off.

"Did you guys find anything yesterday?" Jewel asked as they flew over the south side of the jungle.

Rafael sighed. "No, but we did manage to cover the whole eastern side of the jungle before it started raining."

"Where'd you guys stop?" she asked.

"Eternity Falls."

Jewel sighed. "I haven't been to Eternity Falls in years."

"Well," said Rafael, "when we find Nico and this whole thing blows over, then Eva and I can watch the kids and you and Blu could go. Has Blu ever been there?"

"No," said Jewel. "I know he's seen it, but he's never been there. And you and Eva don't have to worry about watching the kids. You've got enough problems with your own..."

"Well, it's just Juan you have to look out for," said Rafael, a lightness in his voice that hadn't been there ever since Nico's abduction. "We still have no idea why he keeps eating people's feathers..."

Their friendly conversation continued on for a while, and both of them knew the purpose. It was to distract themselves, to ease the tension. But the tension was still there as the search for the missing canary continued.

**xxx**

Nico woke up around noon the next day, which was strange, seeing as he normally woke up earlier than that. His muscles didn't ache like the day before, but his headache was still present. He was still shivering although the air was hot. As soon as he sat up he became lightheaded and started coughing, the same dry cough from yesterday. When he scrambled to his knees, his stomach lurched and he nearly vomited. All in all, he pretty much felt like crap.

He scooted across the glass to his rain catcher and slowly gulped down some water, hoping it would help. It didn't. He felt ready to be sick at any moment, and the unusually bright light just made his headache worse.

Moaning, Nico lay back against the pile of leaves. At least when he laid down, his stomach wasn't as upset and his head didn't hurt as much. But something was still wrong. Maybe it was just from not eating in a few days. Headaches and an upset stomach were signs of malnourishment... right? Then why didn't Nico feel hungry at all?

Nico pushed himself into a sitting position and rested his forehead against the cool glass wall, closing his eyes. _Maybe it's an infection or something..._

Opening his eyes, Nico looked at the cut on his shoulder, which had scabbed over. It looked normal, and the skin around it wasn't red or irritated, which was a good sign. He looked at his wing and also found it to be normally healing. Even the wound where the glass had been had healed cleanly. The same with the wound on his chest. So it wasn't an infection...

Nico moaned and coughed, clutching his stomach as a wave of nausea overcame him. _What's wrong with me?_

He rested his head in his hands, but pulled back. Slowly, he put his hand to his forehead again and suddenly became even more worried.

He was burning with a fever.

**xxx**

Jewel and Rafael found nothing on the search. It was getting late, close to sunset, so they decided to call it. They flew back to Pedro's hollow, but they were shocked when they got there.

Pedro was wide awake, sitting on the ground. Blu was standing next to him and the kids were using Pedro as a jungle gym. When Jewel and Rafael flew into the hollow, Pedro looked up, looking excited.

"We didn't find anything," said Jewel. She expected Pedro to look sad and disappointed, but he didn't.

"Where did you look?" he asked, still looking excited yet not a hundred percent sane.

"Uh, we looked all over the south side of the jungle," said Rafael.

"Well that explains it," said Pedro.

"What are you talking about?" asked Jewel.

Blu finally spoke up. "He started talking as soon as he woke up. I had to bring the kids here to calm him down and make sure he didn't leave."

"What's going on?" asked Jewel.

Pedro smiled. "I think I know where Nico is."

**xxx**

The night had clouded over, making it even harder to see where he was going. But that didn't stop Nico as he ran for his life through the dense bushes and foliage. His wings had been cut and damaged in his escape, so flying was out of the picture.

His breathing became ragged as his energy began to fade, but when a twig snapped close behind him and footsteps sounded, he found the willpower to continue forward.

Far in the background, he could hear Roberto calling out: "_Maurice, stop!_" but his voice was suddenly cut off.

Nico was getting tired. He had been running too long, pushing his weak and damaged body to its limits. His legs felt too heavy to lift and his eyes began to slide closed as exhaustion took over. Suddenly, Nico saw a clearing up ahead. Maybe that would be his only chance.

As he ran towards the clearing, he heard the strange roaring sound growing even louder; loud enough to drown out the sound of Maurice's pursuit. Nico wasn't sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing.

Suddenly, he came into the clearing and skidded to a stop. He was right on the edge of a giant waterfall.

Looking around, Nico saw the other shore, but he knew he would never be able to get over there in his condition. He had to find another way across! But it was already too late.

Maurice exploded from the bushes. Nico whipped around and watched in horror as Maurice held up a giant ragged shard of glass. The wind picked up and lightning flashed in the sky, illuminating the deadly weapon.

"It's your choice," whispered Maurice menacingly. Nico knew what he meant. He had to choose between Maurice and the waterfall. Knowing he could still glide, however, Nico chose the waterfall.

He turned around, and without hesitation, jumped off the ledge.

He never made it to the ground.

Nico lurched to a stop in midair and started falling, only to be stopped again. Looking up, he realized Maurice had grabbed his foot.

"NO!" shouted Nico in frustration. He struggled against Maurice's grip, but he was still too weak from sickness and starvation.

"Don't think I'd let you off _that_ easily," hissed Maurice. He started to pull Nico back up onto the ledge. "But you _did_ choose the falls over me, so I'll give you what you want..."

Nico continued struggling as Maurice lifted him onto dry ground. Suddenly, Maurice let go of him, and Nico fell to the ground, landing right on his back. The landing knocked the wind out of him and he sat up, struggling to catch his breath.

That was when Maurice started laughing. Nico looked up and gasped. Maurice held the glass shard tightly in his hand, eying Nico like a hungry snake. Nico knew he didn't have any time at all. He had to escape _now!_

Not even bothering to scramble to his feet, Nico turned and lunged for the edge.

Maurice grabbed Nico's feet and flipped him over on his back.

And Maurice plunged the shard of glass deep into Nico's stomach.

Nico screamed and curled himself around the wound, convulsing and breathing in rapid shallow gasps as blood oozed out around the glass and onto the ground. Maurice stood over him laughing maniacally.

The bushes behind Maurice rustled and Roberto and Miguel scrambled out. They both gasped at the sight of Nico lying on the ground dying, a shard of glass lodged through his stomach.

Maurice bent over the dying canary. "You said wanted the falls..." With that, he reached towards Nico, only to stop as a blood-chilling scream came from above. Maurice looked up just in time to get tackled by Blu and Jewel. Rafael had already pinned Miguel to the ground with Roberto's help. Pedro rushed to Nico's side, his face paling as he saw the damage.

"Aw, man..." Pedro gently lifted Nico into his arms. "Nico?" he whispered.

Nico lay still for a minute before violently coughing and barely opening his eyes. His vision was clouded with pain and blood loss, but his eyes managed to focus on his friend. "Pedro?" he gasped.

Tears filled Pedro's eyes as Nico started coughing again, grimacing after every cough. He was growing weaker; slipping farther away with every passing second.

"I-It's gonna be okay, Nico. Just... just hold on, we'll get help," Pedro whispered, trying to stay calm.

At the moment, the others finished tying up Maurice and Miguel and slowly made their way over to Nico and Pedro. Jewel gasped and Blu put his arm around her. Rafael looked like he was watching his own son die, because, well... he kinda _was_.

Pedro looked sadly up at the others and slowly shook his head. He looked back down at Nico; the pool of blood beneath him growing larger. His whole abdomen had already been stained red.

Pedro slowly reached for the shard of glass still sticking out of Nico's stomach, but Nico weakly grabbed his hand. "No..." he whispered, his eyes closing again.

"Just let me take it out," whispered Pedro. "You'll feel better..."

"N-no..." moaned Nico. "It h-hurts..."

"It's okay," said Pedro. "It... it won't hurt much longer..." Slowly, Pedro gripped the end of the glass and gently pulled it out as straight as he could. Nico bit his lip, tears falling freely, and tried not to cry out.

As soon as Pedro fully removed the glass intrusion, he threw it over his shoulder, where it landed somewhere behind him in the waterfall. Nico had gone limp again, and the wound continued to bleed.

"There," whispered Pedro. "Feel better?"

"Not really," gasped Nico, his voice barely a whisper. He had started shaking. "Just... cold..."

Nico started to look down at the wound, but Pedro stopped him. "No," he said. "Don't look down."

The very next thing Nico did was look down. When he saw the damage, he snapped his eyes closed and moaned, becoming even paler than before.

"Don't worry, it's gonna be okay," whispered Pedro. Nico looked up at him and smiled weakly; he knew that Pedro was lying.

Nico's breathing slowed down and his eyes started to close. "I'm sorry..." he whispered.

Pedro shook his head. "You didn't do anything wrong..."

"I d-didn't hold on l-long enough..." Nico whispered. The darkness finally closed in on him and, with a sigh of relief, he closed his eyes, going limp as the life left him. Nico died in his best friend's arms.

Pedro slowly found Nico's bottle cap, which he had brought with them, and placed it gently on Nico's head. He lowered his head and sat motionless as the rain started falling lightly, almost as if the sky itself was crying...

**xxx**

Nico sat bolt upright, gasping for breath. He was still trapped in the bottle. He was still alive. It was just a nightmare.

Nico looked down to find no wound, but it was almost as if he could still _feel_ the shard of glass. It was still nighttime, a few hours away from dawn.

He took a deep breath to try and slow his heart rate. _It was just a nightmare, it was just a nightmare, it was just a- oh god!_

Nico flung himself at the hole in the floor and vomited. He had been feeling sick all day, but watching himself die pushed him over the edge.

After a minute, he sat back, shaking. Not having the energy to stand, he scooted along the floor until he got to his rain catcher and drank something, getting rid of the awful taste in his mouth. He shakily laid down right where he was, at the base of the neck of the bottle, right under the hole in the roof, where at least a cool breeze could reached his burning face.

The second Nico closed his eyes, he fell into a fevered delirious sleep...

**xxx**

Day 5

"Where are we going," called Blu as he and Rafael struggled to keep up with Pedro.

Up front, Pedro slowed down a bit and allowed Rafael and Blu to catch up. "Well," he said, "I don't know exactly..."

"What? But you said you knew where-"

"I _do_ know where he is, kinda, but I need to know what we're up against," said Pedro.

"So, we're going... where?"

Pedro smiled, but not in a _sane_ way. "We've gotta find the enemies first!" With that, he flew off.

"Well, that was cryptic," deadpanned Blu.

Rafael looked to Blu. "Don't feel bad man. I don't know what he's talking about either."

"And you won't if you don't get up here!" shouted Pedro.

Blu and Rafael caught up with Pedro, who was still heading towards the city. "They've gotta be near the city," Pedro muttered to himself. "How else would they get all that... who am I talking to?"

"Pedro, what are we looking for?" asked Blu.

"Yeah, if we don't know what we're looking for, how are we supposed to help?" asked Rafael.

Pedro stopped and smacked his forehead. "Man, my brain's gone missing, what was I thinkin'?"

"No comment," muttered Blu.

Pedro shot a glare at Blu, but it didn't have anything behind it. "We're lookin' for the monkeys!"

**xxx**

Nico woke up that afternoon in a coughing fit. The hot air didn't really help with the coughing, though. It must have been 3 in the afternoon, and at least 100 degrees, but Nico was still shivering- partly from the fever, and partly from his nightmare last night, which was still fresh in his mind.

Nico covered his face with his hand. _How did I escape in my nightmare?_

Lifting his head, he looked around for anything that would help aid him in an escape. As one would expect, there wasn't anything but a few leaves, and _those_ wouldn't be much help.

Sighing, Nico turned around and painstakingly crawled up the neck of the bottle to the cap. Like the door to a prison, it was sealed shut, but not completely...

Looking closer, Nico could see that the cap was a little bent in the middle- probably from some human opening it- and it made a tiny gap that was barely big enough for Nico to fit his finger through. But at least it was a start. Now if he could just find something to help him pry the cap off...

Looking around, Nico still didn't see anything until his eyes fell on the hole in the floor. Slowly, Nico crawled over to the hole and looked down into the chasm below. Looking closely, he saw a stick, lodged between two rocks.

Nico slowly put his arm into the hole and reached for the stick. It was _just_ out of his reach.

"C'mon," muttered Nico. He stretched a little bit farther and he felt the tip of his fingers brush against the stick. He leaned down even farther and closed his eyes, feeling the stick slowly come into his hand. It was about time too; his shoulder and neck were starting to hurt.

Nico tried to pull the stick back up, but it was really lodged in. However, after a sharp twist, the stick came free. Because of the awkward position he was in when he twisted the stick, his neck nicked a sharp edge on the glass, but he didn't really feel it.

He turned the stick so that it would fit in, and he pulled it through.

"Yeah, there we go!" he whispered to himself, suddenly feeling tired.

Slowly, he pulled the stick back up to the capped exit of the bottle. Using most of his remaining strength, he jammed the end of the stick into the gap in the bottle cap. It held firm.

Nico put his all of his weight (which was next to _none_) on the end of the stick and pulled it down as hard as he could. The cap didn't budge.

Growling, Nico scrambled up on top of the stick and braced his hands against the ceiling. He held that position as he waited for the sudden wave of dizziness to pass. When it did, Nico steeled himself and used all of his remaining energy (which wasn't much) to push down on the stick.

The stick started moving a bit, and Nico thought it was actually working. He was wrong. There was a loud _crack_ as the stick broke.

Nico tumbled to the ground and picked up the stick. It was shorter now, and the tip where it had broken was sharp and pointy. _Better be careful with that,_ he thought. _That could take an eye out._

He carefully laid the stick back down and crawled up the neck of the bottle again. The part of the stick that was lodged in the gap also had a pointy end that would kill Nico if he tried to attack the bottle cap.

Carefully avoiding the spike, Nico maneuvered around it and took hold of the base. He pulled it as hard as it could and, eventually, it came loose.

Nico stumbled over to the hole in the floor and dropped the end of the stick that had been lodged in the opening into it.

Feeling his energy being drained, Nico slowly crawled over to his rain catcher. He looked inside. It was almost empty. Looking up at the sky, Nico saw that it could very well rain later, and right now, he was dehydrated. He needed the water even more now that he was sick, so he just finished off the last of it and positioned the rain catcher under the hole in the roof.

Feeling even more tired than before, Nico sat down. He reached over and took hold of the half of the stick that he had kept, dragging it with him. He laid down on the pile of leaves and instantly fell asleep, the stick in his arms like a weapon...

**xxx**

It was near sunset, and a couple clouds were starting to roll in. Pedro sat in a tree, banging his head against a branch. Blu and Rafael watched for a while.

"I am-" BANG "-so mad-" BANG "-right now!" BANG! BANG!

"Pedro, I think you're gonna give your self even more brain damage than you already have," said Rafael.

Pedro stopped banging his head and looked up into space. "Wait a second! I've got it!"

"What, a headache?" asked Blu.

Pedro whirled around. "It's either a headache or an effipaty!"

"You mean epiphany?" asked Blu.

"Yeah! That!" exclaimed Pedro.

"Well, what-" Rafael started to ask, but he was cut off by Pedro.

"C'mon, I'll show you!" Pedro shot up into the sky and above the trees with Blu and Rafael right behind.

"How hard do you think he was hitting his head?" Blu whispered to Rafael.

"If he can still fly... not hard enough."

They caught up to Pedro, who was hovering in midair around the height of the clouds. He was looking down at the ground searching for something.

"Pedro," called Rafael. "What are you looking for anyways?"

"They weren't in the jungle near the city, but they've gotta be near some kind of- WHAT WAS THAT?" gasped Pedro, pointing down at the jungle below.

"What, what?" asked Blu and Rafael, looking down, trying to see what Pedro saw.

"I saw something right below us!" Pedro gasped. "And look! Houses!" He pointed to a small group of about three houses, only their roofs visible through the dense jungle canopy.

"Pedro," warned Rafael. "Don't do anything-" Pedro stopped flapping his wings and took a nosedive straight down into the jungle canopy. "-stupid..."

Pedro broke through the trees and flew straight for the ground. In that split second, he saw that there were monkeys all over the place, swarming around all over the ground. If he went down there alone, then he would be outnumbered. _No, don't think of it as outnumbered, think of it as a wide target selection!_

"Pedro stop!" called a voice- probably Rafael- from behind him, but Pedro didn't really listen.

When he was just 100 feet away from the ground, he was intercepted by a solid wall of white. The next thing Pedro knew, he was pinned to a tree trunk by his neck.

"And just where do you think _you're_ going?" hissed a menacing voice.

Pedro froze. He had only heard that voice a couple times, but it was enough to sometimes give him nightmares.

Pedro looked up at what was pinning him down and saw something that made him want to scream.

Nigel.

**xxx**

_Tap... Tap..._ Roberto tapped on the glass with no effect. Nico still lay inside, not moving. He was curled up in a ball on a pile of leaves facing the other way, but Roberto could tell something was wrong. Horribly wrong.

"Kid... Hey, you okay?" whispered Roberto. He glanced over his shoulder at the tree where the other two monkeys lounged in the foliage. It was getting dark and they were probably already asleep, but it didn't hurt to be careful.

The canary still hadn't moved. Roberto bit his lip nervously. _What if..._

He shook his head. _No way. _

Roberto looked into the hole in the glass bottle's ceiling and blew into it. He sat back and watched.

Nico moaned and rolled over onto his back as the offensive breeze reached him. When Roberto saw his face, he gasped. Nico looked awful! He was pale and trembling, and so thin you could see his ribcage.

Nico coughed and opened his eyes a bit. "What is that awful smell?" he moaned.

"Hey, my breath doesn't smell _that_ bad!" exclaimed Roberto. He huffed a breath into his hand and sniffed it, then withdrew with a horrified look on his face. "Egh..."

"W-what is it?" groaned Nico, barely opening his eyes. He pushed himself up on his elbows and leaned against the wall. "What do you want?"

"You look awful!" exclaimed Roberto.

"And you smell awful," countered Nico, closing his eyes. "What do you want?"

"I uh... I thought you might want this," said Roberto, holding up an incredibly tiny grape that would have been the perfect size for Nico.

Nico studied the grape for a moment before shaking his head. "No thanks... I'm not hungry..."

Roberto gawked. "You're not... Man, you haven't eaten for 5 days! How could you not be-"

"I'm just _not_, okay!" exclaimed Nico. Suddenly, he cried out and curled up in a ball, clutching his stomach and gritting his teeth. "See..." he moaned through his teeth. "I'm fine..."

Slowly, Nico relaxed and uncurled himself. He lay back against the wall; the cool glass soothing his stomach and attempting to bring down his fever.

Roberto fingered the grape in his hand, and then dropped it into the bottle. "Just in case," he said. Nico barely acknowledged him.

Roberto started to walk away when a thought occurred to him. He turned around. "Y'know, you've been here for 5 days and I still don't know your name."

The canary smiled weakly. "Nico. My name's Nico."

"Nico?" confirmed Roberto.

"Yeah. And don't you forget it..." whispered Nico as he slipped into unconsciousness.

Roberto studied the canary for a moment before turning and scrambling back up the tree. It started to drizzle a little bit, so he hoped Nico would get at least _some_ water.

Once he was back up in the tree, Maurice looked over at him. "So, what's the news on our little captive?"

"I think he's sick," reported Roberto. "He was weak and pale and coughing and he wasn't moving. I don't think he's gonna last much longer."

"Really," muttered Maurice as he picked his nose. "How much longer do you think he's gonna last?"

Roberto bit his lip. "Two days at the most."

"Two days!" exclaimed Miguel, who had been sitting in the corner unnoticed. "That's way too long, his friends could find him by then!"

Maurice laughed. "They'll never find him as long as they're flying!"

"But still, we could just drop the little twit over the falls! Get it over with! Nice and quick!"

Maurice stood up. "I DON'T WANT HIS DEATH TO BE QUICK AND PAINLESS! I WANT TO WATCH HIM SUFFER!"

Roberto took a step back, almost falling out of the tree in the process. Maurice had totally lost it. He had gone _way_ too far!

"Hey, um, Boss, I'm gonna turn in for the night," said Roberto.

"Whatever," said Maurice, waving his hand dismissively.

Roberto scrambled higher up into the tree and settled down on a nice wide branch. _I'm sorry Nico,_ he thought. _I'll get you out of here..._

**xxx**

"You?" gasped Pedro, staring at Nigel.

"Who else?" asked the cockatoo in a uh... cocky fashion.

The branch shook as Rafael and Blu landed on it. "Nigel!" gasped Blu. "You're alive?"

"Uh, duh," exclaimed Nigel sarcastically. Pedro started struggling to free himself, but Nigel tightened his grip. "I wouldn't do that if I were you."

"If you were me, then I would have to be _you_, and I would rather be dead!" exclaimed Pedro.

"What are you doing here?" asked Rafael carefully.

Nigel rolled his eyes. "I have the most important job that there is here!"

"Janitor?" asked Pedro. Nigel tightened his grip even more and Pedro made a gagging noise as most of his air was cut off.

"No... I'm the guard! I get to beat up anyone like you-" he looked right at Pedro, "-who come here without permission!"

"And you're working for the monkeys _because_...?" asked Blu.

Nigel looked away, keeping his head up. "Let's just say it has something to do with blackmail."

Pedro groaned. "We don't have time for this!"

Nigel put his foot on the branch he was standing on, pulling Pedro down too. Pedro got an up-close view of Nigel's talons and gulped. "What's the hurry?" asked Nigel.

"We're looking for Nico," said Rafael, narrowing his eyes.

"That tiny little canary?" asked Nigel, not really caring.

"Yeah," said Pedro. "Remember, you almost killed him once."

"I don't remember that," said Nigel, looking away.

"You don't remember shoving him in a cage and almost cutting him in half?" growled Pedro.

"Yes, I remember," said Nigel, rolling his eyes and not paying any attention to Rafael, who had a very large stick in his hands. "But what is one bird to me?"

Pedro snarled. "What has he ever done to _you_?"

Nigel looked right down at Pedro. "What _hasn't_ he done to me? What hasn't every bird in South America done to me?"

"I dunno, like you," said Pedro. Nigel snarled and tightened his grip on Pedro's throat. Pedro made another gagging noise and started to get tunnel vision.

At this point, Blu jumped forward.

"I wouldn't do that," said Nigel, slightly lifting Pedro.

Blu extended his wings slightly, blocking Rafael from view. "Why not?" he asked. "There are three of us and only one of you?"

"Well, if you haven't noticed, your third member is being held hostage," said Nigel.

"I AIN'T NO HOSTAGE NOW PUT ME DOWN!" shouted Pedro. With that, he bit Nigel's foot so hard he drew blood. Nigel yelped and loosened his grip on Pedro. That was when Rafael jumped in the air from behind Blu and hit Nigel in the head with the stick. Nigel let go of Pedro and Pedro rolled off the branch, flying towards the ground as fast as he could. Rafael and Blu followed.

"Pedro, where are you going?" shouted Rafael.

He was 20 feet off the ground now, and closing in fast. "I need to see the-" He was cut off by Blu and Rafael's scream. Before he could even turn around, something hit him from behind and drove him down at the ground, now only 3 feet away.

Pedro, Rafael, and Blu all slammed into the ground and were pinned there by something standing on their backs. In front of them, someone yelped.

"Nigel! What is this!" Mauro stood in front of them, his hands on his hips.

"What does it look like?" asked Nigel sarcastically.

"What did you do with my friend?" shouted Pedro, who lay trapped between Blu and Rafael.

Mauro looked down at Pedro. "Why should I know what happened to your friend?"

Pedro squirmed under Nigel's foot until he was loose enough to look up at Mauro. "_Because_ he was kidnapped by monkeys!"

Mauro looked thoughtful for a second before turning to Nigel. "Let them up."

"What?" gasped Nigel, his feathers sticking up.

"You heard me!" exclaimed Mauro. A sly smile spread across his face. "Or do I need to bring out that pic-"

"No!" shouted Nigel, jumping back and allowing Pedro, Blu, and Rafael to stand.

"Good. Now get back up in your tree," said Mauro, waving his hand dismissively. Nigel grumbled and flew off into the trees while Mauro laughed.

Pedro stepped up to Mauro. "Where. Is. My. Friend?" he growled.

The smile faded from Mauro's face and he sat down on his soda can throne. "Who is your friend?"

"His name's Nico. He's a yellow canary. Now _where is he_?"

"I got a few more questions. When did he go missing?"

"Five days ago in the middle of the night."

Mauro groaned and smacked his forehead. "Five days ago I banished three of my monkeys."

"Three of them," muttered Pedro. "Did one of them have a scar on his nose?"

Mauro looked right at Pedro. "His name was Maurice. He was my brother."

"What?" gasped Rafael and Blu.

"He was the one who tried to kill us, and I'd bet anything I got that he's got Nico," said Pedro.

Mauro didn't speak for a minute. Then, after thinking a bit (which must have been hard for him), he said: "What did you friend look like again?"

Pedro held up Nico's bottle cap, which he had been carrying with him ever since Nico was taken. "This look familiar?"

Mauro looked drained. "So it's true," he said to himself. "He actually did it."

"What?" asked Pedro.

"Your friend's probably already dead if my brother got him," said Mauro.

Pedro shook his head. "No. No way."

"Hey, maybe you'll find his body," said Mauro with a shrug.

Pedro looked ready to start a fist fight, but Rafael stepped in front of him. "You said you banished just three monkeys?" he asked Mauro.

"Yeah, but I bet Roberto is probably alone by now. He always hated Maurice," said Mauro, talking more to himself than to Rafael.

Rafael took a step back. "Yeah, uh, we better go now..."

"Eh, whatever," yawned Mauro.

Without any hesitation, the three birds took off. As they passes the tree where Nigel sat, Pedro crossed his eyes and stuck his tongue out at Nigel, who only hissed at them.

Once they were above the tree line and on a course for home, Blu turned to the others. "So did you get anything from that?"

"Yeah," said Rafael. "Nico's being held captive by three monkeys, but one of them- the one he called Roberto- switched sides and would help us if we find them."

Blu stared. "How did you get all that from just that one little sentence?"

Rafael smiled. "I have 18 kids. I can read the hidden messages and see what they're hiding."

Pedro tuned out the conversation and stared off into the distance. Clouds were coming in and it was starting to drizzle, but he didn't pay attention to that either. He was planning their next move.

_Tomorrow_, he though, _we go to_ _Eternity Falls..._

**xxx**

It had to be around the middle of the night by the time Nico woke up again. It was still drizzling a little bit, but even through the cloud cover, Nico could see the moon. It wasn't quite full, but it was still bright enough to give the clouds a silver lining.

Sighing, Nico sat up. He put his hand to his forehead and found that his fever was higher than it was before. He closed his eyes and laid back against the cool glass, pretending he was home. He closed his eyes and allowed himself to believe that the pile of leaves he was sitting on was actually his real bed. He pretended that he wasn't in some stinking humid bottle either, but back in the hollow of his tree where he knew he was safe.

Slowly, a small grin crept onto his face, but it faded as soon as he opened his eyes and remembered where he was.

The air seemed to start heating up, making Nico feel nauseous again. Functioning only on willpower, Nico pushed himself into an upright position and slowly crawled towards the neck of the bottle.

He settled at the base of the bottle's neck, breathing easy as a cool breeze reached his face and the thin trickle of rain brought down his fever a little bit. He stretched his stiff wings, but his hand hit something. He opened his eyes and saw the culprit. A grape.

Nico picked up the grape and studied it for a minute, trying to remember where it came from. _Oh yeah,_ he though. _Roberto._

He stared at the grape for a minute longer before slowly shaking his head and letting the grape roll out of his hand. It rolled straight down the hole in the floor, never to be seen again.

Nico settled himself in again. _It didn't matter. I'm so sick it would just come right back up._

He closed his eyes and as the darkness overtook him again, but not before he had one last fleeting thought: _If they're gonna find me, they better do it soon. I'll be gone in three days..._

**xxx**

Day 6

"NICO!" shouted Pedro for the billionth time. He, Rafael, and Jewel had been flying back and fourth over Eternity Falls all day and had found nothing. No sign of Nico, no sign of the monkeys.

"Pedro, you know it's no use shouting," said Rafael. "He wouldn't be able to hear us over the waterfall."

"Yeah," muttered Pedro, looking down at the 200 foot tall waterfall beneath them.

"Pedro, maybe we could stop for a bit," suggested Jewel.

"Alright," said Pedro. He spotted a ledge overlooking the waterfall and flew down to it, Rafael and Jewel following him. They settled down on the ledge and ate some berries from a bush at the edge of the clearing for lunch.

"So," said Rafael, "Pedro, how exactly did you know that Nico could be here at Eternity Falls?"

"What do you mean he _could_ be here? He is here, I know it! I just... don't know where," sighed Pedro, slouching down. "But yeah, it just makes sense that they took him here. Seriously man, those stupid monkeys wanted to disappear off the face of the earth, and I figured 'Hey, Eternity Falls is like the end of the earth,' and we haven't checked here yet, so why wouldn't he be here?"

"Well, we haven't checked the west side of the jungle yet," said Rafael.

"Yeah," said Pedro, "but the west side is huge! Blu showed me a map, and there's no way we'd find 'em if they're on the west side. They could be out of Brazil by now!"

"Well, if they could already be out of Brazil, then why are we still here?" asked Jewel.

Pedro looked up at her. "Because I _know_ he's here. They're just... doin' a good job at hidin' him, that's all."

"Pedro, I think you should calm down," said Rafael gently.

"And _I_ think we spent enough time talkin'!" exclaimed Pedro. He jumped into the air and took off, flying low along the waterfall. Rafael shook his head and he and Jewel followed suit.

**xxx**

"... And... they're flying again!" exclaimed Miguel, breathing a sigh of relief and lowering his binoculars.

"Okay, that was a little too close," said Maurice as he watched the three birds fly back upstream. Then he squinted a bit and looked at the birds. "Give me that," he said, grabbing Miguel's binoculars.

Holding up the binoculars, Maurice focused in on the red-crested cardinal leading the group. "Hang on a second," he said. "That bird in the front! That's the fat one that's friends with the pipsqueak!"

"Whoa, he came close!" exclaimed Miguel.

At this point, Roberto scrambled back up into the tree. "A-are they gone?"

Maurice nodded, still looking through the binoculars. "Yep. They're gone." He lowered the binoculars and looked at Roberto. "How's our little prisoner?"

Roberto shook his head. "Not good. I think he's in a coma."

"A coma?" asked Miguel.

"Yeah, it's when you sleep for a long time and randomly wake up for about an hour then go back to sleep again," explained Roberto.

"I-I knew that!" lied Miguel.

"So how long do you think he's got?" asked Maurice.

Roberto gulped. "Until tomorrow night."

**xxx**

The sun was hanging low in the sky as the day flew by too quickly. Pedro was still searching up and down the banks of Eternity Falls, knowing that Nico was close. But the light failed him.

"Pedro, it's time to go," said Rafael, hovering in the air in front of Pedro.

"No no no no no no no we can't stop now! We're _so_ close!" exclaimed Pedro. "You and Jewel can go back home, but I _gotta_ keep looking!"

"Pedro, it's too dangerous out here at night!" exclaimed Rafael.

"I've lived here for 8 years since the day I was hatched, Rafael, I know it's dangerous!" Pedro practically shouted. "But I don't care! He's here, I know it!"

"That's just it, Pedro! Only 8 years! You're still just a kid..." said Rafael.

"And what about Nico? He's a year younger than me! Shouldn't we be more worried about him?" shouted Pedro.

"I just didn't wanna have two missing kids..." said Rafael quietly.

Pedro's rage faded. "I'm sorry."

"Just don't stay out too long," said Rafael. He turned and flew off with Jewel casting a glance at Pedro before reluctantly following him. Pedro watched them go until they were specks in the distance. Sighing, he turned and continued searching for his best friend.

**xxx**

The sun had set. The stars were out. Maurice and Miguel were snoring away. Now was the perfect time to get out.

Roberto slid down from the tree and quietly dashed across the clearing to where Nico's bottle was located. He reached the bottle and looked inside, but what he saw made him gasp.

Nico was as pale as death, lying in the exact same position he had been lying in earlier. Roberto could just _barely_ see him breathing. If his friends didn't come by tomorrow night, then there would be no hope.

Roberto sighed and started walking towards the direction of the waterfall. There wasn't any time left to wait around for help to come. He was going to get some help.

**xxx**

Pedro could only see by the light of the moon. It was way too dark to see Nico now, but that didn't stop him. He _had_ to find Nico; he was running out of time.

Sighing, Pedro flew down and sat on the ledge that he and his friends had rested on earlier that day. He was tired, but he knew he could pull another all nighter if he had to.

Frustrated, Pedro sat down and put his head in his hands. But that was when he heard it. Whistling.

The whistling had been faint; carried on the breeze and mostly drowned out by the roar of the falls, but he had heard it none the less. And he knew what song it was too. 

Hopping to his feet, Pedro looked over the edge of the ledge, turning his head to the side to try and hear better. For a minute, he heard nothing, but then...

Stronger this time, Pedro heard the definite tune of Fly Love, one of Nico's favorite songs to whistle. It was coming from down below at the bottom of the cliff and near the pool where Eternity Falls crashes into.

Without hesitation, Pedro jumped off the ledge and plummeted towards the leafy ground below. He shot through trees and came close to smashing into the ground before he realized he should stop. Unfurling his wings, he came to a stop and slowly settled on the ground, looking up and realizing he had practically free-fallen about 200 feet.

Suddenly, he heard the whistling again. It was coming from the base of a hollow tree nearby.

Pedro frantically fluttered over to the tree and looked around the base. He couldn't see anything, and he cursed the tree canopy for blocking out most of the light.

"Nico," he whispered, looking around inside the hollow base of the tree. "Are you here?"

Suddenly, something grabbed Pedro from behind and covered his mouth. He let out a muffled scream and started struggling; trying to get away.

"Hold still!" exclaimed a hushed voice from behind him. "I know where- GAH!" Pedro cut off his attacker's sentence with an elbow to the gut. He whirled around to find a marmoset, doubled over and gasping for breath. Pedro recognized him as the marmoset that had hit him in the stomach with a spoon a few weeks ago during the attempted murder of Nico.

"YOU?" shouted Pedro.

"Let me explain," gasped Roberto, holding up his hand.

Pedro snarled. He took a step forward and, even though the monkey was twice his size, he punched him right in the face. Roberto fell back on the ground, moaning, his hand on his left eye. Pedro stepped up to him and grabbed him by the fur on his chest, lifting his head off the ground.

"WHAT DID YOU DO TO MY FRIEND!" shouted Pedro.

Roberto took a few deep breaths before saying, "Let me go and I'll tell you."

Pedro snarled a bit, but reluctantly let go of Roberto. The monkey scrambled back and sat up, rubbing his face where Pedro had punched him. He would most definitely get a black eye.

"Who are you? And do you know where Nico is?" demanded Pedro.

"My name is Roberto," said the monkey. "And I know where your friend is. I'm the one who's supposed to be guarding him..."

"What..." gasped Pedro. "He's still alive? Is he here? Where is he? How's he doing? Is he okay?"

"Slow down kid," said Roberto. "Don't hurt yourself."

Pedro got in Roberto's face again. "Don't tell me what to do you flea-infested canary kidnapping mammal! I'm at the end of my branch here, so you listen to me and you won't get hurt. _Got it_?"

"Yeah. I got it..." muttered Roberto, trying to show Pedro that he was on his side.

"So, is Nico okay?" asked Pedro, the fire in his eyes melting into concern for his missing best friend.

"Well, I wouldn't exactly say _okay_, but... uh..."

"What? What's wrong with him?" asked Pedro.

Roberto sighed. "Well he... he's in a coma."

Pedro gasped. "What?"

"Like I said; he's in a coma. He wakes up sometimes, but not for very long. I don't know if it's from his fever or being starved or dehydrated, but it doesn't look good..."

Pedro stared at him for a moment. "H-how long does he have left?"

Roberto looked Pedro in the eye. "He'll be lucky if he makes it through the night. If you don't come by tomorrow night... it'll all be over..."

Pedro sank to his knees, his face pale. If they didn't find Nico by tomorrow night...

Suddenly, Pedro shot to his feet and grabbed Roberto by the shoulders. "Where is he?" he asked, shaking Roberto's shoulders. "WHERE IS HE!"

"I can't tell you!" shouted Roberto.

"WHAT? WHY NOT?" yelled Pedro, furious.

"If I told you, would you go back for help, or would you try to take on the others on your own?"

Pedro stopped shaking Roberto and slowly let him go. "Man, you're right. But... you'd be there too! You'd help me fight, right?"

"Of course I would," said Roberto. "But you can't just charge in there unarmed and with only me! There are two of them, and you would probably be helping your friend. And who would carry him to safety? You're too small."

Pedro sighed and rested his face in his hand. "Yeah, but how am I gonna get there with backup if I don't even know where he is? I've flown over this dang waterfall a billion times and I haven't seen him anywhere!"

"That's because you've been searching by air," said Roberto as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

"Gee, I wonder why," deadpanned Pedro. "Oh I know! Maybe it's 'cause I'M A BIRD!"

"You'll never find him by air," said Roberto, standing up. He gently touched his swollen left eye and muttered a silent curse. "You'll need to come by ground."

Pedro groaned. "You seriously can't just tell me?"

Roberto shook his head. "Nope. It's too dangerous. You need to find it on your own."

With a moan, Pedro rested his head in his hands again. "Can you at _least_ tell me who your uh... _leader_ is?"

"His name's Maurice. He's kinda a mess. He's totally lost his mind."

"Yeah, but what does he look like?"

"Uh, he has a limp, a scar on his nose, a scar on the top of his head, and he's missing a patch of hair on his arm."

"Yep, that's him," said Pedro. After a second of thought, he said, "Wait, how did he get a scar on the top of his head?"

"Well, he said he got it a few years ago when he was walking on the beach. Said some birds flew by and ambushed him. Dropped a rock on his head," said Roberto.

Pedro froze. "He was lying."

"I figured that much out," said Roberto sarcastically.

"He wasn't _just_ walkin' on the beach! He was dragging a certain bottle towards the ocean, trying to drown my best friend! I was the one droppin' rocks on him!"

"Then he's gonna _love_ seeing you again!" said Roberto with a smile. Then he sighed and his smile faded. "You have to go now. Go back to your tree, get some rest, and come back at dawn tomorrow. He's here." With that, the cryptic monkey scurried off, leaving Pedro standing speechless.

When he heard a bush rustle nearby, he quickly took to the sky, heading back home, wondering how they were gonna find Nico. Searching by ground was dangerous for a bird, but Pedro didn't care. He would risk his life any day to save Nico.

_Just hang in there, Nico,_ thought Pedro. _I'll make sure you see the sunrise again..._

**xxx**

Roberto crept back into the camp, stunned to find Miguel sleeping at the base of the tree in the guard position. He must have noticed Roberto leave.

_Ah crap, this is bad. If he wakes up he's gonna ask where I_-

Miguel's eyes shot open and he looked right at Roberto. "Dude, where did you go?" he asked.

"I had to pee. Any more questions?" said Roberto sarcastically, gulping on the inside.

"You were gone for half an hour! It really took you that long to-"

"Would you like me to go into detail about my adventures in the bathroom?" deadpanned Roberto.

"Ah, um-" Miguel stopped for a minute and thought about something. Then, his beady eyes brightened and he scampered up the tree. When he came back down a minute later, he was holding something. He held it out for Roberto to take it.

"Uh... what is _that_?" asked Roberto, poking the object.

"It's a prune!" exclaimed Miguel.

Roberto looked shocked for a minute before slapping the prune out of Miguel's hand, sending it flying into the bushes. "GAH, YOU CRAZY SON OF A B-"

"Shhhhhh!" whispered Miguel, covering Roberto's mouth with his hand. Miguel hurriedly looked up at the tree, but when nothing moved, he breathed a sigh of relief. "Don't wake up the Boss! You remember what happened _last_ time?"

Roberto licked Miguel's hand and Miguel jumped back, making a disgusted noise and wiping his hand on his fur. "Of course I remember!" exclaimed Roberto. He shuddered internally as he remembered his inability to sit properly for the following week.

"Well then shut up! Now where were you? Really," said Miguel.

"I was... I was looking for help," admitted Roberto.

"What? What do you mean _help_?"

"I _mean_, we gotta get out of here! We gotta get away from Maurice. He's too dangerous now."

"What are you talking about? He's not _dangerous_," said Miguel, crossing his arms and shaking his head.

"Look at that," said Roberto, pointing across the clearing to Nico's limp form, still trapped in the bottle. "That little bird is only guilty of protecting his friends. I saw what happened that day, and it was Maurice's fault. But you see how far he went to get his revenge over something totally stupid and pointless? He's not right in the head, and we need to get out before it's too late."

"And just what would we do if we left? Where would we go?" asked Miguel, glaring at Roberto.

"We could go back to the other monkeys! Maybe King Mauro will let us come back!"

"Or maybe he'll just have all the others kill us! I don't know about you, but I prefer to keep all of my blood on the inside and not smeared across the rocks at the bottom of the waterfall! I'm staying here!"

Roberto took a slow step back. Maurice had already corrupted Miguel; it was probably too late for him. But he still had to try _something_ to get his ex-friend out of harms way.

"Just tell me one thing," said Roberto. "What did that little bird ever do to you?"

"He and his fat friend hit me in the face with a grape!" exclaimed Miguel. "And they hit you too!"

"Actually, they were aiming at you, but you ducked and it hit me. But that doesn't count. It was just a grape," said Roberto.

"Well what about _this_!" Miguel bent down and pointed to a circular scar on the top of his head.

"You were there too?" gasped Roberto. He pointed to Nico again. "You were one of the monkeys who tried to kill him?"

"Who told you about that?" growled Miguel, fire in his eyes.

Roberto shrugged. "A little birdie told me."

Miguel growled again. "Get out of here before I kill you myself."

Roberto shook his head. "Remember that time when we were friends?"

Miguel didn't say anything.

"Yeah," said Roberto. "Me either." With that, he turned and disappeared into the jungle.

**xxx**

Nico came into consciousness just in time to hear the end of the argument, but he didn't pay much attention. He felt so weak that he could barely open his eyes, let alone sit up.

Outside the bottle, the sounds of the argument stopped and it was quiet again. Forcing his eyes open, Nico saw that it was once again night time. He had slept through the whole day, yet he still felt ready to pass out any second. He was lightheaded, nauseous, dehydrated, sick, and burning with a fever that just might kill him.

Slowly looking down, Nico saw that his rain catcher was empty. For some reason, that didn't really surprise him. If anything, it probably sealed his fate.

He was going to die in this bottle. His friends would give up on finding him and they would just get on with their lives.

_Don't be ridiculous,_ said a little voice inside Nico's head. _You know Pedro. He'll never give up until he finds you._

Nico wanted to believe the random annoying little voice, but he was too tired. His chest felt tight and he couldn't take a deep breath. He started coughing feebly for a minute before laying back again.

The sky above was littered with stars, and the moon, only a day away from being full, shone down on the jungle, casting a pale blue light over everything beneath it. After a minute of watching the night sky, Nico saw a shooting star. It may have been childish, but he made a wish.

_I wish that all this would just end._

Nico didn't know it, but his wish was about to be granted.

A few minutes later, he fell asleep.

He didn't wake up the next day.

**xxx**

Day 7

It was dawn, and Rafael and Blu flew towards Pedro's tree after meeting up. Today they were planning on searching as far west as they could.

"Do you think we'll find him?" Blu asked Rafael.

"I dunno," admitted Rafael. "We haven't been able to find him so far..."

Both birds sighed at the same time. Every day of searching brought less hope than the last, and they were running out of time.

They reached the entrance to the hollow and Rafael stepped inside first. What he saw made him gasp.

Pedro lay on his bed, curled up in a ball, pale and sweating. His eyes were squeezed close and he was whimpering. Rafael quickly came to him.

"Pedro!" he said. "Pedro, wake up!"

Suddenly, Pedro's eyes snapped open and he sat bolt upright, gasping for breath. He looked down at his hands and stared uncomprehendingly at them for a while as his breathing returned to normal. After a minute, the color returned to his face and he stopped shaking.

"Pedro, are you okay?" asked Rafael, putting his wing on the smaller bird's shoulder.

Pedro curled his hands into fists and held them behind his back as if he didn't want to see them. "Yeah... I'm fine... Just a... just a nightmare..."

Rafael looked over at Blu, who just shrugged. "Pedro, do you wanna take the day off? We can-"

"NO!" exclaimed Pedro, hopping to his feet. He turned to Rafael. "Ralfy, can Blu leave his kids with Eva for the day?"

"What?" exclaimed Blu and Rafael at the same time.

"We need Jewel to come too," said Pedro.

"Pedro, what are you talking about?" asked Rafael.

"Listen, I really need you guys to trust me," pleaded Pedro. "I know what I'm doin'!"

Blu looked at Rafael. "Just make sure to tell Eva that Jewel and I don't want Juan anywhere near our kids."

Rafael laughed nervously. "Hey, he hasn't tried to eat anyone's feathers for a while..."

"C'mon, we can talk about it on the way!" shouted Pedro, pushing Rafael and Blu out of the hollow and then falling out himself. "What time is it anyways?"

"Just after dawn," called Rafael.

Pedro looked up at the sky. _Okay, okay, we've still got a tiny bit of time. Just calm down. Just calm... down..._

Looking down, Pedro saw that the pond had been turned a blood red with the rising sun. He shuddered, thinking of his nightmare. _All that blood..._

They arrived at Blu and Jewel's tree and Blu stepped in while Rafael and Pedro waited outside.

Pedro looked over to Rafael. "Hey Ralfy, you've seen a lot of horror movies, right?"

"Yeah," said Rafael.

"Well, um... what would be the worst place to get stabbed?"

Rafael thought for a minute. "Uh, probably in the stomach. It's a slow painful death because it takes three times as long for you to bleed out. Why?"

"Well, um, it was uh... my... nightmare..."

"Pedro, did you have one of those nightmares about getting stabbed?" asked Rafael.

Pedro gulped. "Not me..."

"Wait... what do you mean then?"

"It was..." Pedro gulped again. "It was Nico. The monkeys... they..." Pedro couldn't find the right words and he feared saying them out loud, so instead he held one hand in a fist and made a stabbing motion at his own stomach. Rafael went pale.

"That's why you were looking at your hands..."

Pedro shuddered. "I don't want that to happen. Not in real life."

"That's why we're gonna find him," said Rafael reassuringly.

"Yeah, because I know how we're gonna get to him," said Pedro with a sly smile.

"How do you-"

Rafael was cut off by three yawning Blue Macaw chicks as they held onto their father's back, still sleepy from being woken so early. Blu hovered in midair in front of Rafael and Pedro. Jewel followed and hovered next to Blu.

"Rafael, is it okay with Eva if we bring the kids over?" asked Jewel.

Rafael nodded. "She and the kids are probably already awake. They won't mind."

If it was possible to be jumping with anxiety in midair, then that's what Pedro was doing. "Can we go now?"

"Please," said Blu. "They're heavier than they look."

"Okay, let's go," said Rafael. He turned and flew off towards home.

**10 minutes of flight later...**

The group arrived at the home of Rafael and were almost immediately tackled by a dozen playful and dangerous toucan chicks. Rey, Javier, and Abelina, who had all woken up by now, jumped off of Blu's back and gladly met the other chicks. All of them stayed clear of Juan, the feather hunter.

Eva came tromping over and Rafael ran to her to smooth-talk her into letting the kids stay. It probably only took 30 seconds, but Pedro was impatient. It's funny, but one tends to be impatient when his best friend's life is literally on the line.

After a minute, Rafael came back. "Okay, let's go."

Pedro didn't wait around. He instantly flew off, only stopping when he heard his friends calling to him.

"Pedro, where are you going?" called Blu.

Pedro came to a stop. "I'm goin' to save my best friend. Where are you goin'?"

"I thought we were heading to the west side of the-" Jewel started to say, but she was cut off.

"I know what I'm doing! We have to go into the city!" Everyone just stared at him. "Oh, and we're gonna need some rope..."

**xxx**

"He did _what_?" growled Maurice.

"He just ran off!" exclaimed Miguel. "He said that we were in danger, and he just ran like a coward! Do you think he could be getting help from the others?"

"No way," said Maurice, pacing back and forth. "Those other stupid monkeys are controlled by Mauro. They'll never believe a coward like Roberto."

"But what if they do?" asked Miguel, clearly terrified.

Maurice whipped around to face him. "You think I'm wrong?" he asked in a menacing tone.

"N-n-no," Miguel stuttered. "It's j-j-just that..."

"WHAT?" shouted Maurice. "You don't think my hiding spot is good enough? You think I'm stupid enough to let those dumb birds find us?"

"T-that's not it, I was just trying to be careful-"

"Being CAREFUL is STUPID! Get it through your fat head! Those birds will never find us, and if they do, they're friend will be dead! If they don't find us by tonight, then we're in the clear. Now get out of my sight." Miguel obeyed and scrambled up into the tree.

Maurice turned his attention to the comatose canary. He strolled up to the bottle and peered inside.

Nico was passed out on the neck of the bottle. The bottle had a short neck, and Nico was right by the cap, so it would be easy for Maurice to simply reach in and grab him. He was about to when he noticed one crucial thing: Nico was still breathing. Barely.

Snarling, Maurice bent down. "You'll be dead by tonight," he hissed. With that, he stormed off, failing to notice the pointed stick still cradled in Nico's limp arms.

**xxx**

Pedro led the way into the city. Rafael and Blu flew behind him, carrying the rope. Jewel brought up the rear.

"Where are we going?" called Blu.

"HERE!" shouted Pedro. He took a steep nosedive towards the ground and flew through the window of an old building. Jewel swooped ahead of Rafael and Blu and flew in the window after Pedro. Blu and Rafael worked the rope through the window and dropped it inside, landing on the ground right after.

When Blu and Rafael landed, they looked around and realized they were in a large garage. Luiz's garage.

At the moment, the bulldog was standing over Pedro, laughing about something. Jewel was standing a few feet away, also laughing; she was probably happy that she wasn't the one being drooled on. Luiz looked up and saw Blu and Rafael.

"Hey, Ralfy! 'Sup bird?" shouted Luiz, jumping over Pedro and running towards Rafael and Blu.

"Hey, don't ask me," said Rafael, shrugging. At this moment, Pedro and Jewel joined the group. Luiz looked at them and a confused look passed over his face.

"Hey, where's Nico?"

"That's why we need your help," said Pedro, wiping the drool off of his face.

"Well why do you need my help?" asked Luiz, licking his chops.

"We can't find him."

"What are you guys talking about?"

"Nico got kidnapped by monkeys," said Rafael.

"And we need your help to find him," repeated Pedro. "We won't be able to find him by flying, so we need you to help sniff him out!"

Everyone looked at Pedro. "How do you know we won't be able to find him by air?" asked Rafael.

"I'll tell ya later," sighed Pedro. "But we have to get going _now_! There ain't much time left!"

"So why do we need the rope?" asked Blu.

"Just in case," said Pedro. He turned to Luiz. "Can you carry the rope?"

Luiz grinned and nodded. He picked up the curled up rope and pulled it around his neck.

"Okay, follow me!" shouted Pedro. He charged out the cracked door and flew off, his friends following him.

**xxx**

It was well past noon and dangerously close to sunset by the time the group made it to the base of Eternity Falls. Walking turned out to be _a lot_ slower than flying. Pedro didn't know how Blu did it all those years!

"Okay Luiz, can you find anything?" asked Pedro, hovering a few feet over Luiz's back.

Luiz sniffed around for a minute before looking up at Pedro. "Do you have his scent or anything?" he asked.

Pedro held up Nico's bottle cap for Luiz to sniff. Luiz sniffed it and scrunched up his nose. "Man, that smells more like you."

Pedro groaned in frustration. "Okay, fine! Just sniff around and howl if you find anything. We'll go look around. 'Kay?"

"Got it," said Luiz. He went back to sniffing.

Pedro slowly landed and put his head in his hands. He heard Rafael land next to him.

"Pedro? You okay?"

"No," said Pedro. "We have to find Nico by tonight or it'll all be over!"

"How could you possibly know that?" asked Rafael.

Pedro looked up at him, and then looked up to see Blu and Jewel flying near the waterfall. He turned back to Rafael. "Last night, after you left, I met one of the monkeys who kidnapped Nico."

"What?" gasped Rafael.

"I didn't stutter! His name was Roberto. He was the one who hit me with the spoon."

"What did you do?"

"First he grabbed me, but I elbowed him and punched him in the face! Gave 'em a black eye!" Pedro smiled a tiny bit and threw a fake punch. Then his smile faded. "If you see a monkey with a black eye, don't hurt him. He told me we won't be able to find him by flying. I just figured..."

Pedro trailed off and Rafael was about to say something when a long low howl cut through the darkening sky. Luiz.

Pedro shot into the air and flew straight towards where Luiz was standing, right by the pool of Eternity Falls.

"What? What is it? What did you find?" asked Pedro.

Luiz sat down. "This. It's like a week old but I can still smell him!" He pointed to something small glittering in the soil at the edge of the bank.

Pedro bent down and picked it up. It was a small thin shard of glass. He slowly let it fall out of his hand, remembering his nightmare. "C-can you find anything else?" he asked.

Luiz went back to sniffing. He started moving towards the edge of the cliff face. Suddenly, he looked up and pointed at the mist of the waterfall with his paw. "I think his scent goes out there!"

Pedro flew over the water, carefully looking for something – anything – that would let him know where Nico was.

He flew over towards the waterfall and perched on one of the sharp pointy rocks right near the base. He looked around a bit more, but all he saw was a pointy stick floating in the water. But then...

"Pedro! Come look at this!" yelled Jewel, struggling to be heard over the roar of the falls. Pedro leaped off his perch and flew towards where he thought he saw Jewel.

She was hovering _behind_ the waterfall in a pocket of air. "Look at this," she said. She gestured to a small crack in the cliff face. Blu was hovering next to it, and there was a small stream of water trickling out.

Fluttering closer, Pedro found a good foot hold on a rock crevice. He latched onto the rock and looked into the crack. For a minute, he didn't see anything. But then something caught his eye.

Slowly, Pedro reached in and grabbed the thing. He pulled it out and he, Blu, Jewel, and Rafael (who had just joined them) gasped. It was a small yellow feather, tipped brown at the end. One of Nico's.

Pedro looked at the others and shot them his best 'I told you so!' look. Then he got back to the matter at hand. "Where does this tunnel come from?"

Blu latched onto a crevice opposite of Pedro and looked in. "The water's flowing downhill, and we're about 50 feet in the air, so the other end of this tunnel is at the top of the cliff. This little stream of water looks separate from the falls, so I bet there's a really tall tree growing next to where it lets out. So we should just look for a really tall tree at the top of the cliff and we'll find Nico!" Blu exclaimed. He turned back to face the others and found them all to be staring at him. "What?"

"How could you possibly know that?" asked Rafael.

Blu blushed. "Discovery Channel."

"Of course," muttered Jewel.

"Wait," said Rafael. "How are we gonna get Luiz up the cliff? The only other way without flying is about 15 miles away."

"Well that's why we brought rope," said Pedro. He let go of the rock he was holding onto and flew out from behind the waterfall. Locating Luiz sitting on the bank patiently waiting, Pedro flew over to him.

"Okay Luiz, drop them ropes!" he said as he landed. Luiz shook off the ropes and stepped back.

The others joined Pedro on the ground. "What are you doing?" asked Rafael.

Pedro picked up one end of the rope and started to tie it around Luiz's chest, going behind his arms.

"Yeah man, what _are_ you doing?" asked Luiz.

"We need to get up there," said Pedro, pointing to the top of the cliff.

Luiz gulped. "Wish I'd brought my helmet... Isn't there another way?"

"Flying is the fastest," said Pedro as he finished tying the first set of knots. He started tying the second set a little bit below the first set, around Luiz's ribcage. The others seemed to catch on to what Pedro was planning.

"And if you guys haven't noticed by now, I'm not a bird," said Luiz. "What are you doin' with that rope anyways?"

"We're gonna give ya flying lessons!" exclaimed Pedro. He stepped back and looked at his handiwork. The rope made two loops around Luiz's chest, just like a glider harness.

"Okay," said Pedro. "Hold on to your tail!" With that, he jumped in the air and grabbed one of the loops of rope. Rafael also grabbed the loop of rope that Pedro was holding and helped. Blu and Jewel grabbed the other loop of rope, and all four birds beat their wings as hard as they could. And believe it or not, Luiz became airborne.

_Just 180 feet to go,_ thought Pedro. This was gonna take a while.

**xxx**

"What was that?" gasped Miguel. He could have sworn he had heard a long, low howl somewhere nearby.

"Meh, probably just the wind," said Maurice. He looked up at the sky. "It's almost sunset. Go check on the little freak. See if he's still breathing."

Miguel nodded and climbed down the tree. He walked across the clearing to where Nico's bottle was. Inside, he saw the canary still laying in the same position as he had been all day, deathly pale and showing no signs of life except for his chest moving ever so slightly.

With an indifferent shrug, Miguel turned around, only to come face to face with Roberto. Miguel yelped a bit. He hadn't noticed the black eye in the dark, but now... yuck...

"Last chance," said Roberto. "If you get out of here _right now,_ you still have a chance."

"I told you, I'm not leaving," said Miguel, crossing his arms.

Roberto leaned around Miguel to try and get a good look at Nico, but Miguel blocked his path. "Not much to see. Tonight's his last night."

"And if you don't get out of here soon tonight could just as well be _your_ last night!" exclaimed Roberto in a hushed whisper.

"You're wrong, you fool," snarled Miguel. "He will be dead by midnight, and by morning, we will be gone."

"Or you two will be gone and he'll still be alive," said Roberto, narrowing his eye.

Miguel growled again. "Leave before Maurice comes down."

Roberto shrugged. He turned and, just before running off, said, "You can't blame me for not warning you." With that, he was gone.

**xxx**

Half an hour later, the group of birds _finally_ managed to haul Luiz up over the top of the cliff. They all collapsed on the ground, panting and sweating. Luiz, who wasn't tired at all, shook off the ropes, coiled them up, and put them back around his shoulders. He began sniffing.

"Well..." gasped Pedro. "That didn't take... too long..."

"Really...?" panted Jewel.

"He's right," muttered Rafael. "It would... have taken us... twice... as long... to... walk... Ugh, I'm getting too old for this..."

Blu made a choking sound of agreement.

Pedro was the first to recover his strength. He pushed himself up to his knees and shakily stood up. Physical exertion was definitely not one of Pedro's strong suits, but with everything on the line, he couldn't afford to be tired. After a minute, the others joined him on his feet.

Luiz came tromping back to them. "Hey look guys, I know y'all are exhausted."

"You think?" asked Jewel, her wings hanging limp by her side. In fact, everyone's wings were limp and tired.

"You guys ride on my back 'til we get there," said Luiz. He bent down and they all climbed on; Pedro in the front, Rafael in the back, and Blu and Jewel in the middle. Luiz went back to sniffing around, slowly moving inland away from the cliff.

The tired group slowly disappeared into the jungle as the sun set and darkness finally fell.

**xxx**

The full moon shined brightly down on the clearing. There was a storm in the distance, casting the occasional ominous rumble of thunder, but that was a problem for later.

Maurice and Miguel slowly walked across the clearing to Nico's bottle. Maurice smiled maliciously as he saw the limp form the the canary inside.

He turned to Miguel. "This way," he said, gesturing towards the center of the clearing. Miguel turned back to the bottle and grabbed the neck. He dragged the bottle into the center of the clearing.

The moonlight shined down on Nico, making him look ghostly white, almost as if he were already dead.

"You don't know how long I've waited for this," said Maurice. He held out his hand, not even looking at Miguel.

Miguel placed something large, clear, and sharp in Maurice's hand. It was a dagger-like shard of glass. Maurice had kept it from all those years ago when he had kidnapped Nico. When he had woken up, he found the largest piece of remaining glass that he could find from the shattered bottle and brought it with him. He had kept it ever since. And now it was time to use it...

Nico now lay right on the neck of the bottle, on his back, right next to the cap. It was the thinnest part of the bottle. Maurice wouldn't even have to open the bottle to finish the job.

Slowly, he raised the dagger of glass over his head. It glinted dangerously in the moonlight.

Maurice brought the dagger down, but he was stopped short by a blood-curdling scream.

"**NOOO!**" came a shout from above. Maurice looked up just in time to see the foot of a very angry red-crested cardinal coming right at his face.

_WHAP!_ Pedro's foot connected with Maurice's face with a solid thud. Maurice fell to the ground and Pedro hopped on his chest and continued wailing on him.

Miguel made a move to stop the cardinal, but he was intercepted by the frightening sight of Luiz charging at him, canines ablaze and drool flying everywhere.

"AAHH!" screamed Miguel. He turned and took off running, with Luiz, Blu, and Jewel right behind him.

Rafael had landed in front of Nico's bottle and had taken up a fighting stance, ready to defend Nico if the monkey got away from Pedro.

Maurice never really stood a chance against the enraged 4 inch tall bird. Pedro was standing on Maurice's forehead now and connected solidly with the monkey's nose. Maurice screamed as blood gushed out. Pedro's hand actually hurt from breaking the monkey's nose.

Maurice threw himself up and sent Pedro flying off. Then the monkey turned and ran off into the bushes.

Pedro stood up and wiped a bit of the blood off of his hands. He turned around, but a look of shock came over his face. He pointed over Rafael's shoulder.

Rafael turned around...

...and came face to beak with another monkey.

**xxx**

Jewel, Blu, and Luiz chased after Miguel, both from the ground and the air. As they chased after the rogue marmoset, the sound of the falls grew louder and more powerful. But that was when they came into a clearing on a ledge, overlooking the falls. Miguel stood at the edge, looking down into the water. Trapped.

"Alright kid, just come with us and you won't get hurt," said Jewel, stepping towards Miguel.

Miguel shook his head. "Why should I go with you? You're the enemies!"

"We're not your enemy," said Blu. He took a step forward and Miguel took a step back towards the edge.

Jewel turned around quickly to face Luiz. "Stay back there," she whispered. Luiz stopped growling and took a few steps back.

Jewel turned her attention back to the marmoset. "He's right," she said. "We're not gonna hurt you."

"You're lying! You're all lying!" Miguel took another step back, but this time, there was no ledge there. He slipped and fell, only managing to grab on by his fingertips.

Jewel and Blu rushed forward. Jewel put one claw around the monkey's wrist, and Blu put one claw around the other. "Just hold on," Blu said. "We're gonna pull you up!"

Miguel looked down at the raging current beneath him and then back up at the two birds holding him up. A deranged smile spread across his face.

"No," he hissed. "Never!" With that, he let go of the ledge and yanked his hands backwards, pulling Blu and Jewel off the ledge with him.

Both Macaws struggled to keep the monkey out of the water, but they were still tired from hauling up Luiz, and Miguel's struggling didn't help at all.

When they were about a foot above the raging currents, Miguel finally managed to shake Jewel loose. She flew up into the air, too far away to help Blu.

Blu tried to fly up, but the weight of the struggling marmoset combined with fatigue was just too much for him. Miguel's foot finally hit the water, and without any warning, he was ripped out of Blu's grasp and sent hurdling over the falls to his death on the jagged rocks below. He didn't even scream.

Blu hovered in the air for a minute, shocked at what had just happened.

"Blu," called Jewel. Looking up, Blu saw that Jewel was already back on the ledge. He shook off his shock and used the rest of his energy to fly up to the ledge. The second he landed, Jewel hugged him.

"Are you okay?" she asked.

"Yeah..." muttered Blu, breathing hard. He hugged her back and felt that she was shaking. He was probably shaking too.

"Guys," whispered Luiz. "We should probably get back..."

"Right," said Jewel. She and Blu let go of each other. Luiz gestured to his own back and Blu and Jewel hopped on. Luiz trotted back to the others. They didn't look back at the ledge.

**xxx**

Rafael stood staring at the monkey for a minute. He clenched his fists, ready to knock it's lights out, but he noticed something. The marmoset had a black eye.

"Are you Roberto?" he asked.

Roberto relaxed a little bit. "Yeah," he said. "I'm here to help." He quickly came over to the bottle and looked inside. He couldn't even see Nico breathing anymore.

Grabbing the bottle cap, Roberto curled his fingers in the gap and pulled the cap right off the bottle. Pedro rushed over to the bottle. Gently, he reached inside and carefully grabbed Nico's shoulders. Slowly, he slid Nico's emaciated body out of the bottle and gently cradled him in his arms.

"Nico?" whispered Pedro. He was deathly afraid right now. What if they were too late?

_No,_ thought Pedro. _He's still breathing. He's got a pulse. Aw crap, he's got a fever!_

Nico looked like a mess. He was dangerously malnourished and pale as a ghost. His feathers were messy and crusted with blood. He had probably the highest fever Pedro had ever seen, and worst of all: he wasn't waking up. Pedro also failed to notice the pointed stick still clutched in Nico's arms.

"Nico? Can you hear me?" asked Pedro a little bit louder. Nico still didn't move. If anything, his breathing slowed down even more.

At that point, the bushes on the far edge of the clearing started to rustle. Pedro didn't take his eyes off of his best friend, but Rafael and Roberto looked up.

Out of the bushes came Luiz, Blu, and Jewel. No Miguel. Roberto gasped.

When they came closer, Roberto slowly came up to them. "W-where's Miguel?"

Blu and Jewel looked at each other. Blu sadly shook his head. Roberto's heart nearly stopped.

That was when Luiz looked over their heads and saw Nico. He slowly walked over. "Is he okay?"

Pedro looked up at him and Rafael. There were tears in his eyes. "I don't... I think..."

Suddenly, Nico moved. He squeezed his eyes shut tighter and shook his head.

"Nico?" gasped Pedro.

Slowly, _slowly_, Nico opened his eyes just a tiny bit. But still enough to see Pedro. He gasped something unintelligible, like he was trying to say something.

Pedro bit back a cry of relief. "It's okay Nico. It's all gonna be okay."

Nico closed his eyes and gritted his teeth, something causing him pain. Slowly, he shook his head. He tried to say something, but he went limp again.

Suddenly, the bushes rustled again. Pedro normally wouldn't have paid it any attention to it, but since everyone was here...

With a bone-chilling battle cry, Maurice charged out of the bushes and straight towards Nico and Pedro. No one had any time to react. They didn't need to.

Without warning, Nico's eyes shot open and, as if electrified, he jumped out of Pedro's arms and lunged at Maurice with surprising strength for someone who had just been in a coma. Maurice definitely hadn't been expecting that, so he stopped mid-charge and stared for a second. Getting whacked in the head with Nico's stick brought him back to his senses.

Nico relentlessly whacked Maurice in the face with the stick. Maurice stumbled backwards and fell, trying to get away from the attacking canary. Everyone else was too stunned to do anything. It was as if Nico had suddenly been brought back from the dead!

Maurice scrambled backwards over the ground. At one point, Nico hit Maurice's broken nose with a solid _thwack!_ Maurice screamed and swung at Nico, connecting with the canary's chest.

Nico tumbled backwards through the air for a second before shaking it off, seemingly unharmed, and charged at Maurice again. However, Maurice had gotten the time he needed.

The marmoset grabbed the shard of glass and held it up as Nico flew at him. Lightning flashed in the distance, glinting off the dagger. Nico's eyes widened and in that split second, he saw his nightmare play over in his mind again. The glass. The blood. The pain. His stomach clenched and he slowed down a bit.

Maurice swung the shard of glass at Nico. By some miracle, Nico managed to avoid it by quickly fluttering up a few inches; the blade almost taking off his foot.

Maurice tensed his right arm, preparing to backhand Nico and cut him open with the dagger. Nico saw his chance.

He charged forward and stabbed Maurice in the left eye with the stick.

Maurice howled and took a wild swing with the shard. It hit Nico and sent him flying backwards. He couldn't stabilize himself this time, because his right wing suddenly refused to respond, and he crashed into the ground. Pedro appeared right by his side.

Nico tried to sit up on his own, but his whole abdomen flared up in pain. He yelped and clutched his chest with his still-functional left wing.

"Nico, you need to lie down," said Pedro, his voice laced with fear.

"No... help me... sit... up..." gasped Nico. He grabbed Pedro's wing and managed to pull himself into a sitting position. Then he somehow got both his feet under him and shakily stood up, looking horrified.

Everyone followed his gaze and saw Maurice, screaming and convulsing on the ground, clutching his bloody face.

After about 30 seconds of painful flailing, Maurice jumped to his feet and ran on all fours out of the clearing again, disappearing. Everyone stared at the pool of blood on the ground where he had just been.

Pedro tore his eyes away and looked at Nico. "Man, where did that come from? That was-" He stopped when he got a good look at Nico's face. His eyes were glassy and staring into the distance. He was breathing rapidly and shallowly, almost as if it hurt.

"Nico, are you okay?" At this point, all the others looked at Nico.

Nico was most definitely _not_ okay. Breathing was painful, and he suspected Maurice had broken some of his ribs with that punch. He couldn't move his right wing, and it just hung limp by his side. Looking down, he saw that there was a large bleeding gash across his right wing and ending half way across his stomach; damage done by the glass dagger.

The fever was burning strong again and as he came down from the adrenaline high, he realized just how weak and tired his was after coming out of a coma so suddenly. His vision blurred and his stomach lurched, making him feel like he was going to puke again.

"Nico?" asked Pedro. Suddenly, Nico collapsed in a heap on the ground. "NICO!"

Pedro quickly bent down and scooped him up. Nico was barely breathing and his fever burnt dangerously high. Everyone made kind of a circle around the canary.

Pedro looked up at Blu and Rafael. "We need to take him to the Bird Sanctuary!"

At this point, Nico coughed violently and moaned. "No," he muttered. "Home..."

"Sorry Nico, but home's gonna have to wait a little longer." He looked back up at Blu. "Can you carry him there?"

"Yeah, I-"

Blu was cut off by a deranged scream from behind them. Everyone whirled around to see Maurice, holding the empty bottle. He was hunched over, breathing hard. The entire left side of his face was covered in crusted blood, and his left eye was squeezed shut.

Maurice charged straight at the group and swung the bottle at the closest bird, which was Rafael. The toucan quickly dropped to his knees and the bottle soared harmlessly over his head. However, it hit Luiz right in the side of the head.

_Thunk!_

The bottle bounced off Luiz's head harmlessly. Luiz didn't even flinch. His face twisted into a snarl and he slowly reached for the bottle, grabbed it, and yanked it out of Maurice's hand. The marmoset looked incredibly stunned and slowly started to back up.

Luiz handed the bottle to Rafael. Summoning all the strength from years of dealing with his kids, Rafael smashed the bottle over Maurice's head.

Large lacerations appeared on the marmoset's head, and Maurice's eyes rolled back into his head. The monkey fell to the ground, blood slowly seeping out from under his head. Rafael dropped the remains of the bottle.

"We better get out of here," he said. Everyone slowly nodded and backed away. All but one.

As the group of birds and Luiz backed away, Roberto stepped forward. He slowly bent over the still form of Maurice and picked up his wrist. After a minute, he dropped it and shook his head. "Nothing... He's dead."

The clearing seemed silent. A few clouds started passing over the moon, a sign of the oncoming storm. Thunder rumbled in the distance and the wind began to pick up.

"Guys," said Pedro. He was looking at Nico, who had all but stopped breathing. "We gotta go..."

"Right," said Blu. He bent over and Pedro lifted Nico onto the Macaw's back.

Rafael turned to Luiz. "Thanks man," he said.

"Hey, no problem," said Luiz nonchalantly. "I'm gonna head home. I've had enough for one day. You gonna stop by tomorrow and let me know what happened?"

"'Course," said Rafael. Luiz smiled a little bit and turned, running towards an old hiking trail that would lead back towards town.

Rafael turned back to help Pedro and Blu. Meanwhile, Jewel slowly walked over to Roberto.

"Are you okay?" she asked.

"I don't know," said the monkey. He turned and looked right at Jewel. "How did Miguel die?"

"He fell off the ledge over the falls," said Jewel quietly. "We tried to help him but... I guess you can call it suicide. He wouldn't let us help him."

Roberto looked off into the distance. "I tried..."

Jewel didn't know what he meant, but she didn't question him. "Where are you going to go?"

He smiled wearily. "Don't worry. I can find my way back home." With that, he turned and dashed off, most likely going back to the marmoset camp.

Jewel came over to the others. "Are you guys ready?" she asked.

They all nodded. With that, they flew off. Pedro flew not more than a couple inches over Blu's back, watching Nico the whole time.

Now he was safe...

**xxx**

Nico slowly opened his eyes, feeling tired and yet refreshed at the same time. It was kinda like how one would feel after a really good night's sleep; well rested but still wanting to sleep just a bit more.

After a minute, the sleepiness faded and Nico's vision focused. He was shocked to see where he was.

He was laying in his bed in his tree. He looked to his right and immediately saw Pedro.

"Dude! You're alive!" he exclaimed, his eyes wide.

Nico tried to sit up, but he immediately became short of breath. "Yeah, then why do I feel half dead?"

"Because you _were_ half dead," said Pedro.

Nico looked up at him, and then down at _himself_. His entire chest was covered in bandages, as was his right wing. He moved it a little bit and was rewarded with a stab of pain, but at least he could move it.

"W-what happened?" asked Nico, pushing himself into a sitting position with his left wing.

"Okay, first, Maurice is dead." Nico's eyes widened and his jaw dropped. "No questions 'til the end, 'kay?" Nico closed his mouth and nodded. Pedro continued, "Okay, we took you to the Bird Sanctuary and they fixed ya all up. Turns out you had a pretty bad infection in your right wing."

Nico couldn't stop himself. "How?"

"It was a stab wound or something. Not from when you were fighting that monkey or anything, but from something before that," explained Pedro.

_Aw crap, that shard of glass!_ Nico thought. He resisted the urge to swear out loud.

"Is that why I had a fever?" asked Nico.

"Yep. Now no more questions 'til the end!"

"Is it the end?"

"Yep."

"How did Maurice die?"

"Probably bled his brains out. I broke his nose, Ralfy smashed your bottle over his head, and I dunno if you remember this but you stabbed his eye out!"

"That's not something I wanted to remember," muttered Nico. "What about the other monkey, Miguel?"

"Suicide. Jumped over the falls."

"And Roberto?"

"He's back home now. Been there a while. Took 'em a week to find it again."

"Yeah, well..." Suddenly, Nico realized something. "Wait, how long was I unconscious?"

Pedro counted in his head. "Uh, exactly two weeks."

"Two weeks?" gasped Nico, sitting bolt upright. He then moaned and clutched his chest as his broken ribs paid dearly for that action.

"Hey man, take it easy," said Pedro. "You hungry?"

Nico held still for a minute. His stomach made a sound like a feral animal. "Starving."

"Good, 'cause look what I found!" Pedro stepped out of the way to reveal a large blueberry muffin. To a human, the muffin was only an inch tall, but to Nico, who was two inches tall, the muffin was huge. Pedro broke off a piece and handed it to him.

The piece of muffin vanished in a heartbeat. Pedro broke off another piece and gave it to Nico. This piece didn't instantly disappear.

Pedro broke off a piece for himself and sat down. He looked like he had something to say.

"What?" asked Nico, narrowing his eyes.

Pedro smiled. "Wait 'til you hear what I've been through."

Nico rolled his eyes. "Go ahead. Crack a joke."

That was what Pedro had been waiting for. "Those monkeys would win at hide-and-seek."

Nico just stared at him for a minute before they both burst out laughing.

Once their laughing subsided, Pedro held something up and Nico almost squealed like a girl. It was his beloved bottle cap!

Nico took the bottle cap and gently placed it on his head. Now he felt truly safe.

The two best friends spent the rest of the day talking about the chaotic week. The whole time, Nico fiddled with his bottle cap.

He was finally safe.

**xxx**

**2 weeks previously**

Only 15 minutes after the group of avians departed from the clearing, the rain began to slowly fall. A young man with hiking boots and a rain coat stumbled into the clearing. His name was Dr. Carlos Felix. He had been out hiking when he had heard the storm coming. And now he ran along the hiking trail, trying to get back to the city before the rain really picked up.

As he came to the clearing, he stopped under a large tree, gasping for breath. He took a drink of water and sat for a minute before carrying on. However, when he stood up, he saw something.

He saw a marmoset lying in a pile of broken glass, it's head bleeding profusely. Dr. Carlos quickly rushed over to the monkey. He pressed his finger gently to the monkey's wrist and didn't feel a pulse, but when he checked the pulse at the monkey's neck, he felt it! The marmoset was still alive!

Dr. Carlos gently picked up the marmoset, thankful that his vet office was near the edge of the jungle, close to the end of the trail.

As the vet quickly ran out of the clearing, carrying the monkey, the rain began to come down hard. That was when the monkey opened his right eye for just a moment. He looked up into the sky.

"I'll be back," growled Maurice. "I'll be back..."

**The End!**

_A/N: Sorry for the little Terminator moment at the end there! I hope y'all enjoyed it. I hope it was worth the wait! This is definitely the longest chapter I have ever written as an author! It's 78 pages in OpenOffice! Phew!_

_Okay, I seriously need to thank KhallieGurl for helping me keep my sanity! I seriously suggest reading a story of her's called "Ambitions." It is AWESOME! Seriously! After you review, go read it! You will NOT be disappointed!_

_Okay, before writing the sequel to this, I'm going to write a quick humorous one-shot for Nigel that takes place before the movie. It's about the first and last time the smugglers tried to give him a bath. ;)_

_Thanks for waiting! I love you all! Now I have to go do my happy dance!_


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